Artemis Fowl: The Duo Paradox
by Emile The Watcher
Summary: Six Months after The Time Paradox, Something is amiss with Captain Holly Short, Dangerous Criminals are loose and its up to Artemis to figure out the puzzle of Holly's condition and save the lower elements from destruction. Will he solve it in time?
1. Growing Pains

**No Intro this time, Just the legal stuff saying Eoin Coffer owns all this and I've just had the honor of reading his books, oh and that the only thing I own is the story line.**

_**Artemis Fowl: The Parabola Paradox**_

_**Fan Fiction By: Emile the Watcher**_

_**Chapter 1: Growing Pains**_

_-Unknown LEP holding cell, off the coast of Ireland, Six Months after The Time Paradox-_

She slipped into the room behind the guard, who paid no notice to her, Foaly's stupid scanners and security were no match for her intelligent bugs. Shame on Foaly for falling for the same trick twice. Perhaps he thought it beneath her, stupid centaur. They had tried to bury the location of where they kept their 'special' prisoner, but they had only made it that much mire obvious. She glanced around the room as the guard walked out, after all, there was nothing wrong, nothing at all.

The room was a plan white walled room, only noticing facts was the cube that floated in the center, stock still, and the little human who sat staring at the door the guard had just walked out from. She paid no attention to her either, as was the plan. She walked closer and nearly tripped one of Foaly's alarms, nearly. But her new cam-foil fooled all of fairy sensors. She grinned to her self as she walked closer to the glass. You think they would have put her in a more secure location than this since she had escaped into this time.

She reached out and tapped the glass causing the human inside to jump vividly. She looked directly at where she tapped and apparently tried to speak, but her box was sound proof. Deciding to show her self She took off her foil and watched as the human grinned savagely. She mouthed three more words at the small pixie standing outside her box.

'Hello Opal Koboi'

_-New Haven-Holly Shorts Apartment-_

The Buzzing alarm pulled her out of her short sleep and she rolled out of bed in surprise born on only getting to sleep a few hours ago. Captain Holly Short glared at the small buzzing alarm that had ended her sleep. After another late night of searching for the Opal from the past had left her with a few short hours of sleep. Yawning and stretching Holly walked into her bathroom, shedding out of her LEPRecon suit she stepped into her shower and tried to wash away her urge to sleep with some cold water. As the water splashed over her face she shivered at the sudden cold and shook her head to rid the shock. She washed briskly and stepped out of her bathroom wrapping a large towel around herself she walked to her closet and sorted through some of her clothes. Grabbing her spare LEPRecon suit she dressed quickly and made sure she had her Neutrino before heading for the door.

As she reached for the switch on the side she gasped in pain and fell to her knees while clasping her right hand over her upper left arm. She glanced through tear filled eyes at her arm as she drew her sleeve up and got nauseous as her muscle shuddered violently and another wave of pain drove through her arm. She hissed in pain and bent over double panting on the floor as her eyes continued to water. She had two thoughts go through her mind as another spike of pain dragged across her nerves.

"_Why isn't my magic stopping this?"_

"_Holly Short crying at a little pain, If Trouble could see me now."_

She straightened and stood up staring at her quivering arm, the muscles stopped moving and she sighed in relief as the pain stopped and she turned towards the door only to scream in pain as her arm tried to move in a way it wasn't supposed to and she fell backwards into a dark abyss.

She blinked her eyes a few times as consciousness rushed back to her with sounds of somebody knocking on her door and calling her name. She rolled up onto her feet and glanced down at her arm, the muscles still quivered a littler bit but there was no pain.

"Captain Short! Respond! HOLLY!" The voice had become persistent and Holly walked up to the door and hit the open switch just in time to catch Trouble Kelp as he went to knock on her door again.

"Whoa" Holly braced Trouble back up and pushed him back into the hall.

"Don't you know you can't enter a ladies house without permission Commander?" Holly asked as she followed Trouble out into the hall and closed the door behind her. Trouble glared at her.

"Why didn't you report for shift, and why didn't you answer the first five times?" He demanded of her

"Whoa, What do you mean, I can't be that late." Holly raised her hands in submission, a rare gesture for her. "Only about 10 minutes right?"

Troubles face took on a worried look "Are you alright Holly?"

Holly shrugged "I'm fine, why?"

"Because, You aren't late for patrol, you missed it, it's almost time for you next shift..."

"You mean..." Holly drew off

Trouble nodded "You've been MIA for a three days. You didn't answer you're phone and you didn't answer when we came over. The only reason I knew you were here today is because of our thermal detection."

"Three days..." Holly blew her breath out "Wow..."

"So, Now I'm asking as you're Commander, Captain Short, Are you well enough for you're patrol?"

Holly shook her head and saluted "Yes, Sir" She said quickly still trying to get over the shock of finding out how long she had been out. He nodded and gestured for her to follow as he turned towards the stairway of her apartment. She glanced once more at her arm before making sure her door was locked and following him.

As they exited the building and headed for Police Plaza Trouble turned his head to look at her. "So, what happened Captain?"

Holly Shrugged again "I'm not sure, sir, I think I was just exhausted from all the late shifts I've been pulling trying to find the Opal from the past."

"I suppose, but three days Holly?"

Holly just grimaced "Must have been really tired"

Trouble raised an eyebrow and looked at her. "I think we should the Medics look at you."

"Really, Commander, I'm fine"

"Yea, Well, you're shift will wait until the Warlocks agree."

Holly growled softly under her breath as they continued their walk.

_-Police Plaza-35 Minutes Later-_

As they walked into Police Plaza, Trouble was instantly bombarded with elves with some urgent issue. Trouble sighed and beckoned at a Warlock to come over. As he approached Trouble called out as he walked off "Check out Captain Short" He said as he vanished inside the mob of fairies.

The Warlock glanced at her "I'm fine, really"

He shook his head "I ain't disobeying Trouble, hold still this will only take a moment." His hands glowed with magic and he passed them over her body. She closed her eyes and concentrated on him not finding something wrong with her arm. He reached her feet and she sighed.

"Not done yet, Something was up with you're leg." He said crouching down to put more focus on it.

"_LEG!"_ Holly thought in shock, hopping that it didn't spasm now as well. She watched worried as he ran his hands over her leg a few times and winced when he squeezed hard.

"Odd, you muscles in your leg seem like they aren't alined right, as if the bones been turned some way it shouldn't." He glanced up at her "Have you broken, or twisted, you're leg recently, and maybe healed it before setting it?"

Holly shook her head "Not that I know of, and I think I would notice something like that."

The warlock nodded "Well aside from you're leg, and it doesn't appear to hamper you in anyway, you're fit for duty Captain, I'll let Trouble know so you can go get ready for you're shift."

Holly nodded her thanks and ran off to the locker room to get ready.

_-15 Minutes Later-_

Holly had just left the locker room and was on her way to the chutes to head topside when she heard her name being called over the Intercom.

"_Captain Holly Short, Report to the Tech Booth ASAP"_

She groaned and wondered what Foaly could want before turning around and jogging back through the lobby to Foaly's Tech booth. As she approached the doors slid open and she saw all the ranking commanders gathered around a screen of Foaly's. Feeling her instincts kick into over drive and her bottom drop out of her gut, Holly doubted she was going to go on patrol today either. She ran in and saluted "Captain Holly Short reporting for duty." The doors closed and the council and commanders turned to look at her. Trouble waved her down "At easy Captain, although I'll doubt you'll remain that way for long." Holly looked at him as he beckoned her over to the screen.

"What's wrong?" she asked

"This" Wing Commander Vinyaya said tapping the screen, looking down at it Holly realized it was the cell where they kept their Opal from this time. Her gut began to clench and her face hardened as she watched.

On screen she watched the human Opal suddenly jump and look at a wall of her cube, she suddenly smiled and mouthed a word, before the screen flicked out for half a second and she vanished from her cube. "...no..." Holly whispered to herself.

"Oh, yes" Foaly said as he walked up behind her. "I have no idea how she did it but you can assume that the past Opal is involved in some way"

Holly didn't even hear him as one thought echoed though her head _"Artemis..." _she thought in shock _"Somebody has to warn him..." _

"What are we doing to catch her?" She asked as she turned and grabbed one of Foaly's LEP suits off the table.

"The same things we've been trying with the past Opal," Trouble replied "What are you doing Captain?" He asked her as she slipped into the suit.

"Topside," she replied, "Somebody's got t-" She never finished her sentence as her leg suddenly clenched and she fell to the ground with a cry of pain.

"HOLLY!" Foaly and Trouble called out at the same time. Holly meanwhile was shaking with pain from her leg as she cried out again from another spasm.

"What's wrong?" Trouble asked as he knelt down by her shaking form and tried to hold her still, while Foaly went to the intercom to try and get a Warlock in to the tech booth.

Holly felt consciousness start to slip from her grasp and for once she went into it, anything to escape the pain...

_-Fowl Manor, Ireland, 2 Hours Ago-_

"At peace, Commander, I doubt anybody knows about this" Artemis soothed the raging Trouble for calling him at Police Plaza.

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU FOWL?" Trouble shouted into his computer screen, glad that his office was sound proof. "Just cause you've helped the People before doesn't mean that you can call my office when ever you want, what is somebody walked in?"

"First off Commander, What if's are pointless, a waste of brain power, and a waste of time. Two, It's highly unlikely that anybody would walk in as I'm sure you locked you're door as soon as you saw it was me calling."

Trouble growled under his breath, the Mud Whelp was right anyway, he _had _locked his door the second he saw it was Artemis. "You don't need to sound so smug Fowl"

Artemis grinned into his disguised fairy phone "But it's what little fun I get to have Commander."

"I wouldn't doubt that" Trouble muttered under his breath.

Artemis sobered up "On to Business though Commander, I wonder, have you sent out Holly on a mission with in the past few days?"

Trouble shook his head "No, In fact, _Captain Short _has been MIA for the past three days after she missed her patrol top side."

"That's exactly what worries me Commander, Holly told me that she would drop by on her way back from her shift, and she never did, plus she has not answered her communicator the last time I tried to call her."

Trouble sighed "Alright, I get it then Fowl, What do you think has happened?"

Artemis looked across his room at Butler who nodded "I honestly have no Idea Commander, I only called you to ask that you check on her."

Trouble sighed again and glanced at his clock "Alright Mud Boy, I'll check on her, Do you want me to call you when I find her?"

Artemis voice dropped an octave "Absolutely not Commander, that would be a breach of security, No, I'll shall call in a few days, I trust that should be enough time to locate her."

"Alright"

"Oh, and Commander, I would suggest checking her home" Artemis ended the call after that and looked over at Butler.

"I was right not to tell him my suspicions, wasn't I, Old Friend?"

Butler nodded again "Yes, Best to let them search first, you can feed you're theories to Foaly if they don't manage to find her."

Artemis nodded and went back to staring out his window, Butler backed slowly out of the room and left his young charge to think. Closing the door Butler turned right around to see Angeline Fowl standing at the top of the stairs.

"Is he still worried about Holly?" She asked him while she watched him with a calm air.

Butler nodded "Yes Ma'am"

Angeline sighed "Oh, My poor Arty, Let me know if I can do anything to help, would you?"

Butler nodded again "Yes, Ma'am, Although, right now, I think he just needs to be alone."

Angeline nodded before turning around to head down the stairs, it seemed that Myles didn't want daddy at the moment.

Butler watched her go before resuming his guard post at Artemis's door. He hoped he would be alright, after all, Artemis was one of his few true friends.

_-Police Plaza Medical Center-_

Holly screamed again as she fisted the sheets in the med ward bed in pain, a team of healing warlocks hovered around her, all of them focusing their magic on her to try and stop her pain. Trouble stood worriedly over her while Foaly coordinated the search for the Opals. Holly's mind had long since been lost to the pain. She wasn't even really Holly anymore, she was Pain, pure and simple Pain. It washed around her in waves racking her body and causing her to see flashes of light. Although through the waves Holly experienced an out of body experience. She saw her past, her mothers death bed, her fathers funeral, Root's Death, Her journeys though time, her body falling to the floor in Foaly's Tech booth. Then she saw her present from, writhing in a hospital bed while warlocks hovered around her. Another wave of bright pain washed through her consciousness and she thought she maybe was watching her future too.

She saw herself walking through the Police Plaza, Commanders Acorns pinned to her chest.

Another wave of pain a different image

Artemis actually laughing at something that she had said.

Pain...

The next image though was the worst, she saw Artemis hugging and kissing with a Mud Woman, and Holly felt something inside her recoil away from the image.

A giant wave rushed through her as the Warlocks brought her around. She felt her body relax shaking into the sheets as sweat rolled off of her. She blinked wearily a few times and looked around for Trouble, making eye contact she attempted a feeble smile. "So, when Do I get to go on my shift?" she asked.

Trouble's worried face was replaced with a smile for an instant "I don't think anytime today Captain." he replied back as he stood up and headed for the door. "Let me know if there are any changes" he called as he walked out.

Holly glanced around at the Warlocks and felt a shiver a pain pass through her "What's wrong with me?" she asked the lead Warlock. He glanced around before answering.

"We're not exactly sure, but it seems as if you're bones themselves are changing, twisting and moving positions."

Holly blinked once, that was a bit much even for her.

"My bones are WHAT?" she asked, the what coming out as a yell.

The Warlock shrugged again "I'm afraid that's the most I can tell you Captain Short, we're confused as well, we've never seen something like this."

Holly laid back into her pillow _"What's wrong with me?" _she asked herself as she relaxed.

"The pains gone, what did you guys do?" she asked as she fought sleep.

"Nothing, we've been able to do nothing, you're bones just stopped moving."

She nodded weakly as a peaceful blackness enveloped her for sleep.

_-Fowl Manor, Ireland, Artemis's room-_

Artemis felt his finger vibrate and he quickly twisted his ring into position. "Holly?" he asked hopefully.

"Nope" came Troubles reply "But we did find her..." he trailed off.

"Trouble, what's wrong?" Artemis asked standing up and going over to knock on his door.

Trouble sighed as Butler came into the room and closed the door.

"Trouble?" Artemis asked again.

"I-I don't know Fowl, we found her, she was passed out in her apartment, I saw her myself, she seemed perfectly fine, except for the fact that she though she had only been out for a few hours at most."

"There's more." Artemis said.

"Yea, I escorted her to police plaza, I had a medical warlock check her over, and aside from reporting to me that her leg seemed odd she was perfectly healthy. I called her in for a briefing and she was on her way to the surface when she suddenly grabbed her leg and collapsed with a scream."

"_Holly..." _Artemis thought to himself; to Trouble "What else happened?"

"Nothing, we took her to medical and she shook and screamed for a few hours before she just opened her eyes and asked if she could go on shift."

"Did the Warlocks have anything to say?" he asked trying to figure out a way to maybe help her.

"Just that her bones seemed to be moving and that their movement was pulling on her muscles and that was the cause of the pain."

"What about her magic-" he started "How come it's not healing her?"

"We have no clue Artemis, this is way out of our league, I never seen or heard anything about this."

Artemis said nothing, just stared into the floor as he tried to think.

"Artemis?" Trouble asked

"Yes?"

"There's one more thing, that briefing that Holly collapsed in, it was about our Opal Koboi escaping."

Artemis blinked twice as everything in his mind ground to a halt and rearranged them selves.

"How?" he asked sharply

"No clue, Foaly was tempted to call you for help but we got distracted, be on alert, she may target you."

"Not may Commander, _WILL,_ and my family too." He looked up at Butler "Koboi has escaped, get everyone gathered up and arrange for them to visit one of out new cabins." Butler nodded and walked briskly out the door.

"Fowl"

"Not now Commander, I need to see about my family's safety" Artemis said as he twisted the ring around and headed downstairs to follow to see if Butler needed any help.

When Artemis reached the lobby his parents were putting coats onto the twins while Butler loaded suitcase into the Bentley.

"Arty, what's going on?" His Father asked

"Oh, I just planned a surprise skiing trip for you guys." Artemis tried to reply casually.

"Really, you sound nervous about something. Don't lie to me, what's wrong?" Artemis Sr. asked as he took a step closer to his son.

"Nothing really Father, I just want you to be happy."

Artemis Sr. studied his son for a moment. "Alright. How long is our trip lasting?"

Artemis shrugged "That would be spoiling the surprise Father."

Artemis Sr. smiled, "Okay" He turned to the Twins "Who's ready to go skiing?"

As they headed out the door Artemis called out "Oh, Mother, a word please."

Angeline paused before waving her husband and kids along and turning back to her oldest son.

"Yes Arty, what's wrong?"

"There's another reason I'm sending you away Mother, the fairy that possessed you helped free her counterpart from this time. I'm sending you to a cabin when you should be safe."

"Arty...You're coming with us then."

Artemis shook his head "No Mother, I am her target, I won't have you getting involved again, not if I can help it."

Angeline pursed her lips "Nothing I say will change you're mind will it?"

Artemis shook his head slowly, "I am afraid not Mother, Butler will see you safely to the cabin before flying back to help watch here."

Butler had come in at this point and shook his head "I'm afraid not Artemis, I'll not leave you here alone."

Angeline turned around and began to walk out the door "I'll leave you to discuss this."

"Domovoi, I need them safe." Artemis spoke up as Butler folded his massive arms across his chest.

"No Artemis If Opal does target you first, I'm going to be here to make sure she doesn't succeed."

"Dom, Please don't make me order you to protect them, do this as a favor to me."

Butlers face hardened for a moment "If it comes to that I'll do as you say, not happily, but I'll do it."

Artemis opened his mouth but couldn't force the words out, so he changed tactics. "Please, Dom, For me, I want to know they are safe, what better way to guarantee that then send you with them? I can handle anything Opal can come up with and implement in such a short time."

Butler looked behind him at the Bentley waiting by the door, he gave a giant sigh and placed a massive hand of Artemis's shoulder. "Very well, friend, I'll do it, if there was any other way you would have arranged it already by now, right?"

Artemis nodded sharply once "With the time constraints this is the best plan to see them safely away."

Butler knelt down and gave Artemis a quick hug "Be safe then Artemis."

Artemis returned the big mans affection quickly and backed away "You as well Dom."

Butler stood up and reached under his jacket and handed Artemis a Neutrino "Keep it with you"

Artemis took the gun and readied it "Yes, Now, Go."

Butler nodded one last time and walked out the door, and got into the Bentley. Artemis watched as Butler peeled out of the drive way and drove off to the near by airport where the Fowls kept their Jets.

"Be safe." Artemis whispered as he closed the door and locked it. He retreated back upstairs, and headed into his office, closing and locking the door behind him, he drew the blinds on the window shut and sat behind his desk. As the sun faded and his room got darker the only light from his office was his desk lamp.

_-Police Plaza-Medical Center-_

Holly opened her eyes and stared around at the empty room, tossing the sheets off her she gingerly rolled to the edge of the bed and swung her legs down. She stood up and got light headed for a moment. When she could see straight Trouble was standing in the door way with an eyebrow raised.

"And, where are we going?"

Holly just returned his eyebrow raise "Topside, somebody's got to warn Artemis."

Trouble shook his head "Already did, you lay back down till we know what's going on."

"You called him? Isn't that breaking the law?"

Trouble nodded his head "Yes, and Yes, but he called me first."

Holly stepped behind a shade to take off her hospital gown and put on her undersuit again "Are you going to order me to stay here?" she asked as she slid her legs in.

"If I have to." Trouble replied

"Are you though?" she asked as she slid in her arms and zipped the suit up.

"I would, but it would be a waste of breath as I'm sure Foaly's already planning on me saying no and has set up something to help you get up."

Holly laughed gently as she walked out from behind the shade and sat down on the bed to pull her boots on. "I'm sure."

Trouble shook his head "I should have taken you're acorns by now." he said, then sighed and tossed her helmet at her.

She caught it and grinned "Now you wouldn't do that."

He reached out of the room and grabbed a suit off the wall. "I do demand one thing of you though."

Holly looked up serious "What's that?"

Trouble walked into the room "Why are you going up if Artemis has been warned?"

Holly stopped for a few moments and blinked her eyes a few times, she reached up and touched the edge of the socket that held Artemis's eye. "I-I'm not sure, I'm worried about him I guess, Knowing him he has some plan that may require fairy's in someway, plus, its highly likely that Opal will go after him first since he the easiest to get who can match her brains, maybe even surpass them."

Holly stood up and Trouble handed her a Neutrino. "Did you come here to arm me, or stop me?"

Trouble shrugged "Honestly I hadn't made up my mind, I brought all that just in case."

Holly nodded and stood up saluting "Wish me luck then?"

Trouble nodded and stepped out of the way "Tara is waiting for you."

She nodded and took off running down the Medical Center.

_-Fowl Manor, Ireland, 2 hours later-_

Artemis sat in his office still, his eyes closed and his mind running at top speed, when the knock came on his window he readied his Neutrino and stood up. He walked over to the window and fingered the controls to raise the blinds. Taking a breath he pressed the button and aimed his Neutrino at the fairy who was floating outside his window.

"Really?" Holly asked "You're pointing a Neutrino, at Me?"

"Holly" Artemis breathed out and unlocked the window and stood back as Holly flew in and hovered at his eye line. "By the way, Fowl, you need to aim a little lower, might actually kill somebody shooting them in the head."

Artemis looked at the gun in his hand "If it was Opal I don't think anybody would have minded much."

Holly hovered forward and gave him a quick hug. "I Agree" she said as he stiffened. She backed off quickly and disengaged her wings, dropping to the floor with a slight thump.

Artemis brushed his suit off and used that movement to regain his composure, he moved over to his desk and sat down in one of the chairs in front of it. Holly walked over and hopped up into the chair oppisite.

"You seem bigger."

Holly raised an eyebrow at him "Are you calling me fat Fowl?"

Artemis blinked and stuttered a bit "A-N-No, I just mean that you seem uh...taller" _"What's wrong with me?" he asked himself "Why can't I talk straight around her, 'Uh's' not even a word, and I stuttered to"_

Holly just grinned at him "Relax Artemis, I was just pulling you leg, I don't feel any different, although the suit does seem to be a lot tighter on my though."

Artemis just waved a hand "It's of no matter, I'm more curious of what has been paining you."

Holly's face grew somber "I have no idea Artemis" she glanced to the left "It comes in waves and almost sends me into shock every time according to the warlocks."

"Do they know why you're magic has apparently no effect on it?"

She shook her head somberly "No, I've decided to just go about my day and hope that if it strikes it won't be during anytime serious."

Artemis nodded his head and looked down at his hand as the ring on it vibrated.

He hummed and twisted the ring "Yes, Trouble?" he asked, Holly raised an eye at him.

"Has Short made it up there yet?"

"Yes, shes here, thanks for the heads up, I almost shot her."

Holly covered her mouth and giggled.

Artemis himself felt his lips curve into a small smile as Trouble sputtered on his end "Sh-SH-SHOT HER?"

"Relax Commander, I'm joking with you."

"That's not funny Fowl" Trouble demanded. Artemis would have had a smart reply for that but he was distracted by Holly bending over in her seat holding her stomach.

She groaned as she dropped out of the seat and lay on her side.

"Holly?" Artemis asked urgently standing up and kneeling down next to his writhing friend.

Holly took a deep shuddering breath and cried out as he spine stiffened her body almost bent in half backwards, Artemis taking a hasty step backwards to avoid being hit by her. He cleared the chairs away and backed up.

"Ch-Che-Chest" She gasped out as she folded back in on herself.

Artemis bent back over her "Holly, can you hear me? What's going on."

"HURTS!" she cried out as she collapsed into another wave of unconsciousness.

Artemis lifted his hand back to his face. "Trouble, get Foaly up here, Now!" he said closing the link. Bending down he scooped up the twitching Holly and carried her out of his office and into his room. He laid her on the bed and backed away, afraid he might damage her more. He glanced out the window and hoped that the Fairy's would hurry, that or Butler would come home. He glanced back at the bed when he heard a what sounded like clothing ripping, he fretted for a second that she had accidentally tore his bed spread but felt his eyes widen as the sides of her suit started to rip. Seeing a line start across her chest he quickly covered her up and watched, listening to the rest of her suit rip. He noticed that she did seem to be getting bigger and adjusted the comforter to keep her covered. When she finally stopped twitching and laid still Artemis sighed.

"What's wrong with you Holly?" he asked no one in particular as night took full hold on the house.

_**Closing: Well, What do you think? Good, Bad, (I'm the guy with the gun; evil dead reference) Or just plain crap? Leave you're thoughts in a review I always like to read reviews and respond to.**_

_**Emile  
**_


	2. Changes

_**Sorry its only 6 and 1/2 pages, but I don't want to go any further for a bit...need to be sure...**_

_**Artemis Fowl: The Parabola Paradox**_

_**Fan Fiction By: Emile the Watcher**_

_**Chapter 2: Changes

* * *

**_

_-Fowl Manor, Ireland, 4 hours later-_

Holly felt consciousness gradually return to her by a steady beep.

_Beep, Beep, Beep_

She heard someone speak from a distance away "I think shes coming around..."

"_Artemis?" _she thought.

Her eyelids felt heavy and every bone in her body ached but she forced them open anyway and was treated to a heavily blurred image as her eyes tried to focus. She blinked a few more times and got a half focused shot.

"Artemis?" she asked faintly as her eyes focused and she was greeted by Foaly's face.

"No, But I'll be sure to tell Fowl you asked for him." Foaly said with a grin while Holly groaned.

"Please, Don't"

"No Need Captain, I heard what you said." Artemis spoke up as he walked into Holly's field of view.

Holly closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead "Just knock me out again please."

Foaly chuckled and Artemis felt the corner of his mouth tic up.

"But we have so much to talk about Holly" Foaly said as he walked around the bed with a scanner in his hand.

"What do you mean?" Holly asked

"You were right by the way Fowl, they are getting longer, I still hope that I'm wrong on my theory of course."

Artemis nodded "As am I Foaly, Have you figured out any possible cause yet?"

"Guys?" Holly asked

Foaly shook his head "Nope, have you?"

"What about me is getting longer?"

Artemis tilted his head "A few, but nothing I'm ready to voice yet."

"HEY!" Holly shouted and both turned startled to look at her.

"Yes?" Artemis asked pleasantly.

"What about in me is getting longer?" she asked

Artemis raised an eyebrow at Foaly, who just shook his head. Artemis gave a theatrical sigh "If you are not brave enough Foaly, I'll do it."

Holly just raised an eyebrow at him "Well? I'm waiting."

Artemis nodded "Very well Holly, it seems as if you're bones are getting both heavier in mass and longer in length, and that is the cause of you're pain."

Holly nodded "Okay, Any thoughts on why?"

Artemis faked a cough "Well, I'm not sure if you want to know that."

Holly glared at him "Oh, I want to know, tell me Artemis." she said as she put her arm threateningly on the edge of the bed.

Artemis's eyes widened for a moment "I did warn you, The leading theory between me, Foaly, and Qwan is that you're turning into a 'Mud-Woman' as you would put it."

Holly stared at him for a moment "Oh I get it, Ha Ha, pick on the injured elf for all the past teasing right? Good one." She turned to Foaly who was shaking his head with a grim expression. "Foaly?"

"Sorry Holly, Like Fowl said, I've come up with the same thing."

Holly bit her cheek, hard, till she felt blood spill and her magic start to heal her. "Wake up now." she muttered to herself.

Artemis let an actual emotion show on his face: Worry. "Holly, you're not dreaming, I-I'm Sorry"

That snapped Holly out of her mumbling "Sorry? For What?"

"This is my fault." he said "I'm the one that got you involved with my mother half a year ago."

Holly raised an eyebrow again "What do you mean?" she asked

"The only Theory we have is you're becoming a Mud-Woman, we believe the cause is travailing to the past with me to get Jayjay."

Holly held up her hand as Artemis bowed his head, doubtless waiting for a rebuke of some sort. She just kept staring at her fingers and swore she watched them get longer. "I really am..." she trailed off.

Artemis nodded, still without looking up and Holly felt tears gather in her eyes. "A Mud-Woman." She closed her eyes and let the tears fall, she put her head into her hands and started sobbing. Artemis looked up shocked, as was Foaly.

Artemis however still retained some tact "Come Foaly, we should leave her."

Foaly didn't even raise a comment on how Artemis addressed him, just nodded and followed him out of the room and left the depressed Elfin lady to her tears.

Outside the door Artemis turned to Foaly.

"It's obvious she can't return to Haven like that. I believe that she should stay here, with my family up at the cabin she will have little fear of discovery."

Foaly rubbed his chin "I don't know Artemis, what if something else happens?"

"I'm sure that me and Butler can handle it."

Foaly watched him for a moment "Fine, but you check in with me weekly and alert me in anything is off with her."

Artemis nodded and proceeded to head down the stairs "It's done, shall we get you home before you're missed Foaly?"

_

* * *

-Fowl Manor, Six Weeks Later-

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_

Artemis walked down the stairs after another late night of looking for a cure to Holly's condition to find Butler waiting for him.

"Yes, Butler?"

"Our LEP friends showed up early at the door today and requested a meeting, I told them you were asleep and they decided to wait in your study."

Artemis rubbed his forehead "I saw this coming, I rather hoped that I would have more time though."

Butler shook his head as they both turned to go back upstairs "So no luck on a cure?"

"No, Since we know that her condition was caused by both of us going through the time tunnel together, but not specifically what caused it, I have nothing to base my theories on except time related issues."

"Ah."

They walked on in silence until they reached the door to his study, Artemis reached out and turned the knob "Here we go"

"Good Morning, Friends." He said trying to sound cheerful as he walked into the room.

Foaly however wasn't buying it "Nice try Fowl, but there's no reason to be happy right now unless you figured out a way to turn Holly back."

"Agreed Foaly, Fowl, got anywhere?" Trouble asked as he vibrated into the visible spectrum.

"None Commander, My theories are as widespread as Foaly's are. Without an actual known cause I can only guess with possible answers. Many of them risk Holly's life to a degree that I won't even suggest."

Just then the door behind Artemis opened and a small teenager walked in, as Trouble and Foaly vanished from sight (Foaly thanks to a shield generator boosted by Trouble) the girls face fell. Artemis turned to face her. She was just a little taller then him and had shoulder length dark red hair, with part of it hanging down on the left to frame her face. Her lips currently curved down into a frown were a dark red and her ears seemed to poke out a little longer then was normal. She wore a green dress that hung down to her knees and tied at the waist with a darker green band. She was barefoot and had gloves on her hands. Her skin was somewhat tanned, a night lightened brown. But what gave her away was her eyes, one was Hazel, the other Blue.

Artemis in an attempt to help, cleared his throat "Ah, Holly, up to walking around today?"

Trouble unshielded slowly and blinked "Holly?"

Holly saluted "Human Holly Short...reporting for duty." she said meekly.

Behind his mask of indifference Artemis felt his mind reel. _"Holly, Meek?" _He thought in shock.

Trouble activated the wings on his suit and buzzed over to Holly, flying in a circle while she put one hand on her upper arm and looked down. He made a few laps before he stopped in front of her and looked up into her face. He frowned "Why aren't you standing at Attention? You think I'm going to let something like this stop you from being Recon. STAND AT ALERT SHORT"

Holly jumped and stood straight while she saluted and Troubled nodded "At east." he said as be buzzed back to his seat and Foaly clopped over with another Scanner.

"So, any new developments?" he asked as he approached.

Holly shook her head and replied "No" at the same time Artemis did. She glanced his way and sent him a little smile and watched as his face blanked. She laughed inside at his look. _"I always love doing that to him" _she thought to herself, then blushed when she realized she used the word "love" with Artemis. Foaly raised an eye at her blushing cheeks, she just shook her head again as he finished scanning her.

Artemis managed to get his face back into a lofty glare which he turned to Foaly "Anything I may have missed Centaur?" he asked and grinned inside when Foaly grunted and mumbled.

"I thought not." he turned back to Trouble "Commander, I hate to say this, but we should stop devoting resources to Holly's condition and more on finding-"

"Opal, I know Fowl, With six weeks she could have planned a thousand revenges, and set them up too. We have patrols doubled everywhere, but if shes using the same tech she used to break out either of them could be in this very room right now and we wouldn't know."

"Oh I very much doubt that Commander" Butler spoke up for the first time "If either she was here I would know."

Holly nodded his head "There isn't a stealth device out there that can fool Butler." Foaly raised a finger in objection and Holly shook her head "He can beat it."

Foaly put down his finger and pouted a bit. "I have been running various searches on my computers for the past month and a half constantly. I'm 100 percent sure that they aren't underground anywhere."

"Which only leaves thousands of miles of above ground to search." Holly spoke up dejectedly.

"So negative Captain, More like a 196 million Miles."

"Oh yea, because that's so much better" Holly said sarcastically

Artemis shook his head at her sarcasm.

"Either way, We just came up to check on Holly, We need to get back to Haven, we'll be missed soon" Trouble said as he stood up.

Holly Saluted while Artemis bobbed his head gently in their direction. "Very well, Butler will see you out."

Butler opened the door and followed the fairies out of the room, as he closed the door Artemis turned to Holly.

"So, are you going to attempt to throw things at me?" he asked referencing when he had come into her new room a few weeks ago only to find her in a fit of rage. Needless to say she had grabbed the nearest thing and thrown it at him.

"You're lucky I'm not used to my new body or that would have hit you."

"Be glad it didn't, a vase that large directly to my head may have caused lasting damage."

"That was the point."

Artemis shook his head "So, what are you're plans for today since you appear up to moving about."

"I was actually thinking about asking you if I could borrow some money for Clothes shopping. I lucked out and found this in Julie's old clothes, but I want something that fits me a little bit better."

Artemis blinked "Of course, I didn't expect you to be up to going out yet, one moment and I'll fetch a card." Artemis replied as he headed out of the room while Holly looked around the study. For some reason everything looked a lot different when she was taller.

Artemis returned a scare minute later "It has a limit of 20 thousand pounds. It should be more then adequate to outfit your closet."

Holly took the card and grinned "Thanks" Artemis felt something odd in his chest when she smiled and he couldn't place where it came from or what it really was.

Instead he shrugged and left his mask of indifference on "It is no matter, Butler will escort you around, I'm sure he knows of some places he's been with Juliet."

Butler chose that moment to come back in "What am I doing?"

Holly walked towards the door "Taking me clothes shopping."

Artemis saw a corner of Butlers mouth tic up and Artemis hid a grin, doubtless Butler had other plans for today. He glanced down once at Artemis "What about Opal?" he asked as he followed Holly to the door.

"If Opal attacks, I will just have to fly around in another plane until you return."

Both Holly and Butler blinked. "Was that supposed to be a joke?" She asked

Artemis nodded, Holly tilted her head to the side and walked out the door and Butler stayed staring at him.

"I'll be fine old friend, I doubt that Opal has a plan ready to launch at the moment you leave." Butler raised an eyebrow before turning to follow Holly.

Artemis went back to his desk and sat down behind his chair, his mind running, as it had been. Ever since he had found out about the Opals escape his mind had been going through plan after plan to get them. In truth he hadn't even focused much on Holly's condition. A dark part of him even thought that it might be a good thing for Holly to spend some time as a 'Mud-Woman' see things from the other side. He sat behind his desk and meditated till Butler and Holly returned. Butler walked in first and Artemis opened one eye, he closed it to go back to meditating when Holly came in, he opened one eye again and promptly opened the other with a surprised expression.

"Like it?" she asked as she spun around

Artemis just studied the outfit. Holly was wearing a tight fitting green shirt that was cut just short of her neckline and that ran down to her navel which was left exposed, her hips were being hugged by a set a blue jeans that had emerald sequins embedded into the belt loops. The belt was a studded dark green and was complimented by the dark jacket that she wore to cover most of her outfit. She wore a small necklace that hung down and had a star pendent with a red stone that caught the light and matched her hair which was currently pulled back into a pony tail that ran down her back and was clasped with a red sash.

"Well?" she asked again.

Artemis cleared his throat "It's very nice Holly, I take it you enjoyed you're shopping then?"

Holly nodded "Yea, Thanks, is it okay if I keep that card though?" she asked

Artemis nodded "Go ahead, I suspect you'll be needing it." He stood up "If it pleases everybody I suggest we retire for Dinner."

Holly nodded and Butler got up and left the room to start getting the food ready.

-Twenty Minuets later-

They were all sat around the table a light dinner set out prepared by Butler. Artemis was the first to take a bite, so the first to notice something was odd.

"Did you add something to this Butler? It tastes different, not bad, just odd"

Butler shook his head "No, but the lettuce is from a supplier since all of ours wilted this past few weeks"

Artemis paused with the food halfway to his mouth "Wilted?"

Butler nodded "Yes it was the strangest thing, I went out back to the garden and most of it had wilted overnight."

Artemis studied his fork "I assume you vetted this supplier?"

Butler nodded again "Of course, I assume your curious because of the garden wilting."

Artemis hummed a small note "Yes, with Opals loose for so long it seems suspect that they would force us someway to go to an outside provider that they could control somehow."

Holly and Butler both looked at their own forks before setting them down gently "I think I'll see what else there is to eat" Holly spoke up while getting out of her chair and heading for the kitchen.

"I'll come with you, I might find something else to whip up."

Artemis payed no attention to them, instead he took his fork and plate and headed for the stairs.

"_Am I seeing things where they don't belong" _he though as he walked up the stairs. _"It seems a little outrageous even for the Opals, but I must have my curiosity sated. I must study this."_

**_

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I don't know why, But I feel like people are going to hate me for this chapter...I dunno...anyway, Reviews, please._**_

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	3. Feelings

_**I **_**REALLY _Hope this chapter was worth the wait for you guys. I am sorry I haven't updated, Life has been rather strong armed with me recently._**

* * *

_**Artemis Fowl: The Parabola Paradox**_

_**Fan Fiction By: Emile the Watcher**_

**_-Chapter 3:Feelings-_**

_**-Fowl Manor, 2 hours later-**

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_

Holly and Butler were in the training room, Holly fearing she would be slow from her massive amount of bed rest wanted to spar with him. Plus a small part of her always wondered it would be like to take Butler on if she was at least half his size, instead of the size of his arm. When Artemis walked in the two were going full tilt. Which is an impressive feat when you consider how good Butler is. The mere fact that Holly could keep up with him, even if it was just in blocks was an incredible show. Suddenly Holly used her small frame to her advantage and dropped below Butler and rolled under his legs when he made a grab for her. As she came up she delivered a series of blows that had she really been trying might have actually crippled Butler in a fight, all they did how ever was cause him to sweep his arms behind him to try and get her. But Holly had already bounced back out of his reach and was grinning.

Butler growled at her "Stiff my butt, you just wanted to try and fight me didn't you?"

Holly grinned and shrugged fixing the sleeve of the robe she was using "Maybe." She started bouncing from foot to foot taking a fighting stance "Round 2?" she asked and grinned when Butler growled again. She stopped bouncing when she noticed Artemis standing at the door way to the sparring room watching her taunt Butler.

"Enjoying torturing Butler I see." he said as Butler walked over to a towel rack and grabbed one and tossed it at Holly who caught it deftly.

"Yea, I think I made him mad though."

Artemis smiled thinly at Butler "It would seem so."

Butler decided to cut to the point "You've finished with you're tests then?" he asked as he came over wiping his crown with his own towel.

Artemis nodded while Holly relaxed her posture and studied him "Well...?"

"I think I must have been a small bit paranoid, there was nothing wrong that I could see, Perhaps I'm just going crazy"

Holly shook her head "Don't joke about that Artemis, If you went crazy who knows what you would do to the world."

"Fearful for my life Captain Short?" He asked with an raised eyebrow.

Holly s face flushed for a small moment and Artemis smiled inside at at that, she quickly shrugged it off however "No, I fear that if you go insane you'll never find a cure for me."

"Hm, yes, the Cure" Artemis spoke as he turned away from her to head back upstairs.

Holly frowned for a moment before going after him grumbling "Uh-uh, You're not getting away that easy Mud-Boy"

She caught up to him before he had made it to the grand staircase, his head was bowed deep in though and he barely seemed to know where he was going, as if following a per-programmed path, which he pretty much was. She clasped a hand down on his shoulder and pulled his small frame backwards, turning him around so he was facing her. He seemed distracted for a moment and Holly studied his face, was, that...guilt?

Then he shook his head gently was was back to himself "Yes Holly?" He asked after shrugging out from under her grip.

"What was that down there, and just now?" She asked sharply putting her hands on her hips

"I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific Captain, as I have no idea to what you are talking about."

"Don't and try to pull that with me Fowl, You know what I'm talking about, I mention a possible cure for my...condition...and you shut down, instantly leaving the room. What gives?"

He shook his head "Nothing 'gives' Holly, Just deep in thought, who knows, the idea currently running around my head may be this very cure you seek, Which means you are halting you're own...recovery...right now."

Holly narrowed her eyes at him "Then how come, I was just reminded about our adventures in the Spiro Needle, when you lied about the gel scanner."

Artemis blinked once "I assure you Holly, I am far from that boy, I think we have had discussions like this before as well."

Holly studied him for a bit more before releasing him and taking a step back "Alright Arty, but I hope you aren't lying. Because after that lie with you're mother, I had thought you had learned your lesson."

Holly watched as his face closed up and he stood a little stiffer. _"Oops."_ she thought to herself feeling guilty, if there was one thing that always got Artemis mad, perhaps because he did indeed feel guilty about it, was when he had lied about the cause.

"Arty..."

"No matter Captain, I did learn my lesson, now if you excuse me." He turned abruptly away and continue his trek to his office, leaving Holly standing where she was, one arm wrapped across her chest and looking down at the ground. When he reached his office, he closed and locked the door with a code, so that now Butler was the only one who could get in.

Holly retreated back downstairs where Butler was abusing a punching bag quite effectively from the way it kept touching the ceiling. Noticing Holly he caught the bag as it swung back down and leaned against the wall.

"Something wrong?" he asked

"Uh, I think I upset Artemis."

Butler chuckled "Holly, Artemis doesn't get upset. He hasn't been upset in anyway since he was four I think."

"Well his face lost all emotion and he marched off."

Butler raised an eyebrow "Oh? What did you say to him that would promote that response?"

"I brought up his lie with his mother and her sickness."

Butler nodded. "Ah," he said softly as he took a drink of water. Noticing the dejected look on Holly's face he spoke up "Would you like me to go talk to him?"

Holly looked up into his face. "I suppose, but he I think he went to his office and locked the door, I don't think he'll let anybody in."

Butler started for the stairs "Holly, How good of a body guard would I be if I couldn't get to my charge at anytime?"

Holly thought about it for a moment while he paused at the door way. "Right," she said eventually "Makes sense."

Butler shook his head before he ventured up the stairs.

Artemis was bent over a microscope studying the slide when the panel by the door beeped softly and Butler walked in, making sure to close the door and reengage the lock behind him.

"I'm Busy." Artemis said slowly when Butler walked up behind him.

"I've noticed." Butler replied back while he bent down to see in between the slides at what was capturing the boys attention.

"What is it?" Artemis asked, still not taking his eyes away from his microscope.

"You know that you upset Holly just now right?"

Artemis finally took his eyes off his study for a moment and glanced up at Butler before returning to his study of the slides. "How so?" he asked.

Butler tried to discover what he had noticed in Artemis's eyes when he glanced up, something he had not seen in his charges face in a very long time. "Apparently it was when you stormed off just now."

Artemis's hand stilled on the focus knob "Ah..." he said softly.

Butler waited behind him for several minutes before he gave a easy sigh

Artemis rolled his eyes before fully turning away from the table to stare at Butler. "What is it Old Friend?" he asked quietly.

"Why are you shutting her out? Shouldn't you be talking with her, perhaps studying her to find out a way to cure her?"

"I am not shutting her out, as for the studying I have the pertinent data."

"You are too shutting her out, you think I haven't noticed? I may have missed it at first but it became obvious recently. Whats the deal Artemis, why are you acting like this?"

Artemis voice started rising slowly "There's nothing wrong with me. I am not shutting out Holly. There is also no Deal to be going on, I am my normal self"

Butler shook his head "No you aren't Artemis" His voice rising as well "What are you trying to hide?"

"Nothing!"

"Tell me!"

"No! There is Nothing!"

"Yes! There is! What is it?"

"IT'S BECAUSE IT'S MY FAULT!" Artemis finally yelled out, breathing hard for a few moments before getting himself back under control.

Butler nodded "Now, we're getting somewhere." He said softly "Now, what exactly is you're fault?"

"Don't play dumb Butler, you know what I'm talking about." Artemis said turning back to his microscope.

"Holly?" he asked "Her becoming a human right?"

Artemis sighed and Butler saw the weight of the world on his shoulders "Yes, Friend, Her transformation. If we had not gone back in time, there is no doubt that Holly would still be an elf, and back in Haven where she belongs."

Holly who stood outside the door listening to all of this felt a small pang in her heart at theses words. She tried to figure out why but was distracted by what she heard next.

"So, you don't want her around anymore do you?" Butler asked folding his arms across his chest.

"It's not that, exactly, it's hard to focus around her, and with her in human form, a very pretty human form at that. I find that I must constantly battle my hormones when I'm around her."

Butler nodded "I see, that explains a few things I guess"

Holly meanwhile was quite sure that she had heard wrong, for if she was correct Artemis had just called her pretty _and _had a hard time focusing around her. She backed away from the door as a dark void suddenly stealing all warmth in her body as well as clouding her mind in fear. She backed quickly down the hallway and made for her room, where she locked her own door and sat down heavily on her bed. Still trying to process what she had overheard Holly rubbed her brow while shaking her head side to side slowly. She couldn't place a reason on where the coldness that racked her body a few moments ago had come from, or why. It had something to do with what Artemis had said, she knew that much, but beyond that she drew a blank. She glanced around her room, which was most likely to become her home if Artemis couldn't find a cure. Everything had been provided so far to her, and Butler was rather nice, still, something seemed missing, a...private, element that struck a cord with in her. The same cord that had brought the void in, but this time, merely made her heart beat a little faster for several moments while she got almost uncomfortably warm. She blinked and realized that she had been thinking about Artemis that time.

"Frond" she said softly "What's wrong with me? Am I really being attracted to Artemis Fowl?"

Butler paid no notice to the fact that he knew Holly was outside the door, or that she had retreated down the hall at Artemis's last words.

"So, what are you going to do about it then?" He asked "Cure her, so she can go back to being an Elf and get out of your hair?"

"I will try to cure her, but, part of me wants to keep her around, and I must find myself agreeing. Maybe she could grow to be human?"

Butler shook his head "I doubt it Artemis, you should just stick to the cure I think."

Artemis shook his head and went back to his microscope "You're right of course, silly thought, I do have them from time to time, I just need to ignore them from now on."

When Artemis said nothing more Butler realized he had been dismissed and walked slowly out of the room. As he wandered the halls back to the security booth he realized that is something wasn't done soon, there would be a confrontation, and neither of the combatants would come out happy.

When Artemis came down for breakfast the next day Butler watched him as he stared at his plate. "Still thinking about-"

Before he could finish his question, Holly walked into the room with a wave. Noticing Artemis already at the table she sat down next to him and thanked Butler as he set down some pancakes in front of her.

"So what's the plan for today?" he asked as he sat at the table to.

Artemis looked up "Same as the last few weeks, we try to find out where Opal could be while also trying to find a cure for Holly's condition."

Holly looked over at him, studying him, his face was open and he looked as if he had accepted something. She almost missed leaving his room last night when she realized this, she might have been able to understand what was going on.

Butler nodded his head "It's a good idea."

Artemis raised an think eyebrow "I assume there is a 'but' involved in you're next sentence?"

Butler nodded "There is, being cooped up in the manor doesn't seem to be helping much, perhaps, if were to go poke around."

Artemis leaned back in his chair "You have a lead then Butler?"

Butler grinned and nodded "I might."

Artemis stood up from the table "Well, then, On with the hunt."

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_**Could this be the lead that could show what Opal is up to?**_

_**.**_

_**.**_

_**Nah, too early. Still somethings afoot. Stay Tuned, and of course, Review.**_

_**On a side note, I have also uploaded a one shot to go with Kits TBR contest, I would be honored if those who read this also give this a look about. Links is on my profile page.  
**_

_**Emile.**_


	4. Hacking, Breaking, and a Day in the Life

**_-Cackles evilly as fire spews from the ground around him- MWA HA HA FEAR ME FOR I HAV- oh wait, wrong thing ha ha.__ Anyway, I'm really sorry about the wait this time around, My Muse was really reluctant to come down off of Ratchet and Clank, plus a little part of me is nervous with this, just because Artemis is not on my usual par of characters I write about, so I keep checking and double checking, and wondering if Artemis would actually do...well, you get my point. Ah, cross my fingers, and Enjoy Chapter four._**

* * *

_**Artemis Fowl: The Parabola Paradox**_

_**Fan Fiction By: Emile the Watcher**_

**_-Chapter 4: Hacking Breaking and a Day in the Life-_**

**_-Field across from Lil's Lettuce Packing Plant.-

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_**

"Really Butler, Why this particular outfit?" Grumbled Artemis, dressed as he was in, black slacks, black shirt, and had a black jacket with a pull over hood on. To top it off, Butler had also insisted that they paint their faces black as well. Artemis was more then a bit annoyed at these circumstances, not to mention just a bit thrown off his game, not that it stopped him from complaining of course.

Holly stifled a laugh "Really Artemis-" she whispered "-you're starting to sound like Mulch, its not like you not wearing a suit for a few hours is going to kill you, and while they are dark, they don't exactly fit in for what we are going to be doing."

Artemis glanced her way, while he was stewing, Holly and Butler had taken to the whole 'Black Ops' thing with much enthusiasm. Butler swapping out his suit for black jeans and a shirt with a ski mask rolled down over his face. Holly herself sported a cloned look except she wore a black cap with her red hair tucked up under it, her face was of course, painted black.

"I still don't see why I couldn't have just hacked this server from the house."

Holly shook her head "You said it yourself, you can't hack any server that has no internet access."

Butler glanced back at him "Which is what attracted my attention in the first place, a little more digging, and I found out that they had just been bought out. Little bit more digging, couldn't get into the server, thought it might be worth a trip." Butler reached into a pocket and pulled out a small binocular set out and putting it to his eyes. "I may be able to get in there, but if they took it offline, good bet they encrypted it. So, not unless breaking encrypted servers means breaking the server, you had to come along, even though I didn't want it."

Butler handed the binoculars to Holly who edged up on her elbows a little bit more to get a good view. "What am I looking at?"

Artemis edged forward to see what Butler was gesturing at "That door, there's a camera above it, do you think your magic still might work enough to get you under it and pull the power?"

Holly handed the Binoculars back over to Artemis, then spent a little bit thinking about Butlers question. She stared at her fingers for a moment before snapping them and then twisting her head sharply. Nothing happened for a moment before her fingers slowly vanished from view, she closed her eyes and focused before suddenly her shield sped down her arm and took her whole body from sight.

Her voice sounded from where she had been. "Looks like I can make it, I'll be back after I pull the plug."

Artemis waited for about five minutes before he reached forward to where Holly had laid and plucked something from the grass. "Curious."

Butler didn't even glance back "What is it now?"

Artemis chuckled softly to himself "Nothing old friend." Artemis rose to his knees and brushed his pants off, "Lets go."

Butler looked back at his employer at this point, whenever Artemis had that grin on his face, somebody was about to be very unhappy, usually him. "But Holly hasn-"

Artemis waved a hand "She has had ample time, besides, I have a feeling she won't be coming back to get us."

Butler tucked a hand under his jacket, Artemis shook his head "No, she's not returning because of something totally different, come lets go find her."

Butler followed Artemis, scanning the large field of grass as they crossed it, he didn't see anybody but he did see Artemis watching the ground carefully, he also would bend down several times to pluck something out of the grass as they walked, and every time he bent down his mouth quirked up just a little bit more. Butler was straining to know how Artemis knew that Holly wasn't coming back, but he knew Artemis wouldn't tell him until he was ready. Eventually they reached the door and Artemis glanced up at the camera.

"See, she pulled the power cord after all, no worries Butler."

Artemis took a few steps in, followed by Butler who double checked the camera, followed him through. He followed Artemis who was standing in the middle of a hallway. Butler glanced at the entrances and realized that to the right was a man's locker room, the front to the server and the left towards the...ladies locker room.

"...Artemis?"

Artemis glanced back over his shoulder at Butler "i know its a bit, crash, Butler, but.." Artemis bent down and grabbed something from the floor of the entryway to the ladies locker room. Holding it out to Butler along with the half a dozen other black fibers that he had picked up along the way.

Butler grabbed the handful of fibers and looked at them closely "Are these...?"

Artemis chuckled softly again, "Shes not wearing fairy clothes, her shield just vibrated your special clothes to pieces."

Butler followed Artemis gaze to the entrance "So she...?"

Artemis nodded then gestured at Butler "I'm afraid It wouldn't do to have me walking through a ladies locker room, so, if you would be so kind Butler."

Butler didn't move "Oh no Artemis, leaving you behind, not a good move."

Artemis sighed "Very well, shall you lock me in the server room?"

Butler thought about it "That will work for about three minutes."

Artemis turned and walked into the server room closing the door behind him, Butler heard the bolt slide home and he reached over and doubled checked the knob before turning back to the locker room. He gave a short sigh before he called out.

"Holly, if your in there, uh, hide I guess, I'm coming in."

Butler walked in and followed the now thick trail of black threads until he reached a saw a large patch of black clothe sitting outside a locker. Butler rapped twice on the door with his knuckles.

The locker cracked open and Holly poked her head out, from what Butler could see of her head and neckline she was missing her clothes.

"Boy, that was quick."

Butler picked up the square of clothe, and held it up for her to see "Run into some issues?"

Holly gave a fake laugh "Well, I suppose I should have remembered that the clothing would be destroyed if I shielded for too long. But once I remembered, the top was already halfway gone, so I hopped in here and shut off my shield."

"Do you have any clothes left in one piece?"

Holly's cheeks grew red "Well, I have my, uh, underwear, but, they are uh..."

Butler looked at her "They are?"

Holly glanced down at the floor "See through."

Butler took a moment to be quietly stunned, after he recovered he stepped back from the locker "Give me a minute, I'll, uh, see if I can find something for you to wear."

A quick poke around and Butler found a small trench coat for Holly to wear, he covered his face with his hand and held out the coat, after Holly had grabbed it he turned around and walked out of the locker room. After a few minutes Holly came out of the room with a makeshift cloth belt tied tight around her waist keeping the coat closed.

"So, where did you stash Artemis?"

Butler gestured to the closed door. "I left him getting an early start on hacking the server, I would bet hes already done."

The pair walked up to the door and when Butler found it unlocked he walked into to see Artemis leaned back in the chair in front of the server, facing them. "Hmm, Longer then I thought it would take you."

Butler raised an eyebrow. "You're done already?"

Artemis gave a soft dismissive snort. "A five year old could have hacked this, as it was, I have deduced that we have been, I believe the term is 'set up'"

Holly couldn't help herself "Go on, tell us, how do you know that?"

"Because I told him to." from out of the shadows a thin American man step out pointing a gun at Butler.

It was hard to tell who reacted faster, Butler or Holly, both spun at the same time, and both struck out with whatever weapons they had closest. Butler, his fist, Holly, her belt. While Butler spun he raised his fist palm flat and knocked the mans wrist away from them, the man losing his grip on his gun as it went sailing across the room. Holly unlatched her makeshift belt and flicking it out up towards the mans head, the heavy piece of metal that made up the clasp connected with a solid thunk and sent him flying onto his read end. Butler finished him off with a quick kick the face the sent the man sliding into the corner where he collapsed into the corner with a sigh.

"Excellent work you two, now, if somebody would be so kind as to unleash my hands?"

Butler spun around and walked quickly to the chair, snapping the bands keeping Artemis bound to the chair while Holly lashed her coat closed again with her belt.

Artemis stood up rubbing his slightly sore wrists "Ah, much better, thank you Butler, now, not to rush things along, but it would be best to vacate the building, its obvious that this was a set up of some sort."

Butler jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the slumped hit-man "What about him?"

Artemis crossed over and lifted an eyelid, he stood up and turned towards the door "He won't be waking anytime soon, leave him here and let him face the breaking and entering charges. We best hurry back to the manor to see if anything might be amiss."

Holly headed towards the door "You think somebody might take this chance to infiltrate the manor?"

As they walked out the door, Butler already thinking about the sweeps he was going to perform when they got home, however Holly had another question on her lips.

"How did you know?" she asked Artemis suddenly as they crossed the field.

"About your, "Artemis hummed while he thought, tapping a finger on his chin "lets call that a clothing malfunction."

Holly felt her cheeks go warm "Yea, sure, how did you know?"

"Well, It was obvious from the start the you had forgotten that you were not wearing fairy made clothes, so shielding would destroy what clothes you were wearing, after you had raced off to pull the power plug I noticed some fibers from your clothes already on the ground. I waited a few minutes, deduced that you had more then likely managed to pull the power cord from the camera then realized your clothes were falling apart, after that it was easy to follow the trail to the first place you would seek private shelter."

"The ladies room"

They reached where they had parked the car and Butler made sure there were no bombs before letting them in the car

As they underway towards the manor Holly turned to face Artemis sitting across from her staring out the window. She saw in his reflection that he had done that thing where he had raised one of his eyebrows.

"Yes?" he asked pleasantly.

"What now?"

Artemis was silent for a few minutes "I suppose, if Butler finds nothing wrong in the manor, we return to what we have been doing."

"Sitting on our asses?"

Artemis turned to face her, his one eyebrow climbing up his forehead even higher "I would have used a less vulgar term, but yes, unless of course you have something better to suggest?"

"No, nothing" Holly raised her hands and broke the eye contact staring out her own window at the blurred land outside racing past. "The planning was always you're department."

With that, the car spent the rest of the forty minute trip back to the manor and silence.

_

* * *

_

**-Fowl Manor- **

**-Next Day-**

* * *

Artemis opened his eyes to see the half light of morning as the sun struggled to be seen over the mountains gracing his room. Always an early riser, Artemis got out of his bed and got dressed into his casual clothes, a white polo and gray slacks, taking his time in heading downstairs he noticed light coming from the hallway where Holly was. His curious nature getting the better of him Artemis detoured down the hallway, seeing the light coming from Holly's open door to her room Artemis stepped inside the doorway, and stopped.

Holly's room faced the east side, and she had a balcony that was also facing the hills in the distance that the sun was just barely beginning to peak over. Standing out on her balcony, leaning on the railing, was Holly, wearing blue jeans and another green shirt, her hair was hanging lose down her back and considering the way her skin and hair sparkled in the light she had just gotten out of the shower. Artemis gulped softly and felt his mouth go dry, giving a few quick swallows Artemis cleared his throat and knocked on the frame of the door. Holly sighed softly before glancing over her shoulder at him, her face had no worry at all, it was calm and free of all emotion, except, well, it Artemis had to label it, it would be peace.

Holly smiled "I'm surprised you're up so early, a pampered rich boy like you, I would have figured you would sleep until noon if you could."

Artemis felt his mouth quirk up slightly "Some stereotypes are just that, stereotypes, not to be paid attention to." Artemis took a few steps in "Do you mind if I enter?"

Holly shook her head slowly "No" She turned her face back towards the sun as it continued to pull itself into the sky and Artemis walked up next to Holly and clasped his hands behind his back. They stood there and watched the sun finally pull over the hills and the Balcony was flooded with light, next to him Holly sighed and Artemis was curious to know.

"Anything wrong?"

Holly was a few minutes in answering "No, it's just that-" She sighed again "Do you know how long its been since I've actually been able to feel the sun and see it rise?"

Artemis did a few quick figures in his head "I would imagine quite a while from how you're acting."

Holly turned to look at him, their mismatched eyes locking "I was six, and I still had both my parents, they had woken me up in the middle of the night for us and we made a then, legal trip to the surface. We reached Terra and climbed up to the top of the station, into a nook of trees, and" Holly stopped.

"And?" Artemis prompted

"We just sat there, and the sun came over and, it, it was just magical, the way it felt. We never got another chance, my dad died twenty later and my mother soon after that."

Artemis turned to look at the sun, shield his eyes with his hands "Surely there have been other times?"

Holly shrugged "Sure, but it was during a mission or something like that, I couldn't sit there and take it in, not like this, not like then."

Artemis decided then, he would find someway to let Holly have a moment like this whenever she wanted, A most un-Artemis like gesture for him, but there was something about Holly that always stirred something in him, and that had only seemed to grow with her transformation.

Holly sighed and gave him a full look "Why so formal?" she asked

Artemis glanced down at himself, surprised "Formal? No, this is my relaxed clothes, what I usually wear when I'm working in my lab"

Holly gave a soft "Ah" then an awkward silence descended over the pair.

"So, should we go get something to eat then?"

Holly gave a nod and Artemis stepped to the door bowing out to the side for her to step past "Ladies first."

Holly gave a soft laugh and walked past him shaking her head.

**_

* * *

-Hawaii Islands-

* * *

_**

Unknown to the residents of the manor, they were being watched, every movement being logged into a server in the Hawaii Islands in the USA. The footage was watched by two indviduals before being stored, well, one at the moment, but the second was due to return at any moment.

Which was then, the doors to the lab sunk into the rock slid open and a small teen walked in, at first glance the room was empty but on the second pass there was a small fairy sitting on a couch with a remote control, going through the footage.

"Hows the signal?" Opal Koboi asked the fairy sitting on the couch

"Perfect" Replied Opal Koboi "But of course, we designed it, so it was bound to work."

"The large mans sweep didn't detect anything?"

The Opal on the couch grinned "No, our bugs are literally the first living bugs, our first model was great, but implanting the circuity in the larva of cockroach's was genius."

The Opal child walked over and sat next to her counterpart "Good. Obviously my mission went perfectly, they took the bait just like we thought, and ran off to search the packing plant, our mesmerized hit-man kept them busy for a little extra longer and gave me the time I needed to release the bugs."

The Opal child snuggled deeper into the couch "Have we gotten anything good yes?"

Opal fairy rewound the footage till it showed Holly standing out on a balcony, Artemis joined her a few minutes later. "Just this, not a lot of good stuff, just some boring memories of Shorts dreadful past."

Opal Child watched the footage carefully "Maybe not my dear Opal, we may have something here after, something that's forming, perhaps?"

Opal Fairy watched the footage again, a grin spreading on her face "Oh, I believe you're right, now, how do we exploit this?"

Opal Child took her own moment to grin "Well..."

* * *

**_WOO Another chapter done, I hope it was worth the wait, so as usual, leave a review please? It takes all of thirty seconds (five minutes if you give it a whole LOT of thought) and makes me happy and inspires me to keep a story going. _**

**_Oh, a Fun fact, I now have a facebook page, links on my profile page, friend me if you want, plus from time to time, I put my thoughts up there, and sometimes peaks at chapters._**

**_Well, till the next time I get a chapter out, peace to all my readers,_**

**_Emile.  
_**


	5. The Truth is Out

**_AuthorsNote: Oh god you must all hate me, I'm so sorry, so, so sorry, It's been so long since I've updated this story, and I know a few of you wanted an update for Christmas._ _I got so caught up in my school work FIVE BENCHMARKS FIVE of em HOLY-__Mind you these were not Finals, I just finished those (passed all my classes, with four B+'s and 2 A's :D)_ _But the Benchmarks were worth a big chunk of my grade so they occupied a great deal of my time._ _When they were done I flew home for Chirstmas break then flew back for the a fore mentioned finals. While I was home I just could not concentrate on my writing, I tried a few times but it didn't work out._ _This is not an excuse, this is a reason, and I blame myself for not getting this out, but here it is, and hopefully you all enjoy it._**

_

* * *

**Chapter 5: The Truth is Out**

* * *

_

The next week passed in reasonable silence, with Artemis spending most of his time in his lab. Holly and Butler practicing in the dojo and running down electronic leads whenever they came in. The only real note was that Artemis's family, tired of sitting on the sidelines has started their return trip from the skiing "vacation." They would soon be back in the manor, and Artemis had to come up with a believable reason for Holly to be there. But unknown to the those above ground, things below ground were coming to a head, and not one that suited our hero's

_

* * *

**-Haven One Week ago-**

* * *

_

"You're sure you can't delay them anymore Fowl?" Trouble asked his computer screen.

Artemis glared ruefully through the screen at Trouble.

"Don't you think that I have already tried everything in my power to deter them? Short of telling them that a megalomaniac pixie and her past self were out to kill me, I don't think they will be persuaded from their path. Honestly that wouldn't help much either, might get them to move faster in fact."

Trouble sighed "I at least trust you have come up with an excuse for Captain Short's presence?"

Artemis glanced off screen "Well, I have an idea of course, I still need to run it by Holly, it requires her cooperation."

Trouble was silent for a minute "Do I want to ask?"

Artemis felt his lip curl just a bit "It would be better if you didn't."

Trouble sighed "Alright Mud-Boy, just don't do anything to outrageous."

Artemis looked affronted "Me? Outrageous? Perish the thought."

Trouble closed the link. "If only I could." he muttered darkly to himself before going back to the paper work he had been doing before Artemis called him. He was not to get much work done however as Foaly clip-clopped into his office with some data pads in his hand.

"We have trouble Commander." Foaly called out as he came in.

"Doesn't anyway ever knock anymore?"

"Sorry Commander, no time. If I'm right, Holly's condition _and _current whereabouts are about to become public."

Trouble stood up from his desk allowing Foaly access "How public?"

Foaly paused for a moment to look at Trouble "_Very_ public."

"What happened?"

"Somebody hacked into all of our servers, at least all the public ones."

"Hacked? What are they downloading?"

"Downloading?" Foaly gave a mirthless laugh "I wish they were downloading, they are uploading. I can't trace the hack, but I can see what they are uploading, and it's not good."

Trouble was almost afraid to ask. "What is it?"

Foaly opened another window, on it was a picture of Holly in her human form, standing next to Artemis on a balcony, a headline embedded on the image read 'Holly Short, Human Traitor to her own kind'

"That's not all, whoever this is, also uploaded a file detailing Holly's condition, transformation, and her relocation to Fowl Manor."

"How?"

"I don't know, at first I thought it was a lucky guess or something from a crackpot, but when I saw more servers getting hacked I realized somebody wanted this to be seen."

Trouble glanced down at his desk "Opal?"

"I thought it might, but if it is, I can't work out what angel she's playing."

"Damn, anyway to stop it?"

"If it was only a few servers, maybe, but like I said, its hitting everything, including the central server for PPTV."

"You mean..."

"Every single fairy that has their Digital turned on right now is seeing this."

"Oh no."

"So much for secrecy eh Commander?"

"It can't be that bad right?"

Foaly glanced over at him "You have no Idea do you?"

Trouble shook his head.

"Ever since Holly transformed I've been suppressing rumors all over the place, most of them are crack pot things, but there have a been a few that hold some merit and needed to be hidden."

"Like?"

"Well, there was this one with you and her having a secret love affair and you've locked her up somewhere to be your-"

"I get it"

"Plus another one that's the same thing but with Artemis and-"

"Foaly, Point, now."

"Right, anyway, there's already a bunch of stuff claiming a mutant virus that makes us Mud Men is claiming fairies. That we were holding back Holly's transformation for our own evil government reasons. Then there's who ever hacked the site posting that Holly is a traitor to her own kind."

"What do you think the public reaction is going to be?"

"A infamous public hero like Holly? Nothing good, either way the this goes, we look bad."

"We need to find out who hacked us."

"I've been trying, but they beat my system and were out in under two seconds."

"Damn, so you think it was the Opals for sure then?"

Foaly shrugged "It's my best guess, the only other person with that skill would be Artemis himself, and I don't see him doing this."

"Why?"

Foaly opened the picture again "Look at him, Artemis is smart enough to know that this would hurt Holly, and he doesn't look like somebody who's ready to hurt Holly."

Something passed across Troubles face and Foaly wasn't quite sure what it was, jealousy maybe...

"Anyway, we need to get some crowd control now, I've already gotten some press outside waiting for you."

Trouble sighed "Alright, lets see if we cant put out some fires then."

* * *

Up on the surface, things weren't going so well either.

Holly and Butler had just finished their current training in the Dojo and were taking some time to cool off when Artemis came in.

Butler seeing Artemis face immediately asked

"Anything wrong Artemis?"

"It seems my Family has decided that they are tired of their vacation, and are returning early."

Holly glanced his way sharply "How early?"

Artemis gave a rueful glance at his watch. "Tonight, or rather in six hours." He glanced up at Butler "You need to be there to pick them up Butler. I want to be absolutely sure that Opal can't get near my family."

Butler nodded "Of course, I'll make sure nothing happens."

Holly raised her hand "What about me, how are you going to explain my presence here to them?"

Artemis coughed "Ah yes, that, well you see there is one thing that my father would accept with out any questions."

Holly was silent for a moment "Okay, so, I'm almost afraid to ask what that might be."

Artemis felt his cheeks getting hot. "Well..."

Five hours later Butler was gone to the airport to get the Fowl family and Artemis was still negotiating with Holly.

"No way Fowl." Holly replied again while stuffing some more clothes into a suitcase. "I would rather stay in a hotel then pretend to be your-" she mimicked spitting on the ground "Your girlfriend."

"Holly think, A hotel is not safe from Opal, the nearest one is to far away for Butler or I to be of any assistance."

"I can take care of myself Fowl, I don't need your help."

Artemis sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, woman were difficult creatures no matter what the species it seemed.

"Very well, there is a second option."

"Besides me staying in a hotel?"

"Yes, I could say that you are just a new servant."

Holly slammed the lid of the suitcase closed, "So my choices are your Girlfriend or Slave. What do you think I'm choosing Fowl?"

Artemis was silent and thought hard for a few moments.

"Very well, this is your last option."

"You're making it sound like I'm a prisoner here Fowl."

"Holly, please. The third option is I could say you are just a friend I met while out and about with Butler."

Holly studied Artemis face for a moment. "There's a catch, lets here it."

"Well, being female, and considering that my parents have been trying to get me to date for the past few months...my mother isn't of any issue, she'll understand, my father on the other hand...well, he might just try to make you my Girlfriend."

"Huh. Your parents are trying to get you dating? How did that go?"

"Horrible, but Holly, your choice, please."

Holly was silent for a few minutes, finally she flicked the clasp on the suitcase and opened it. "Fine Fowl, I'll stay as your friend." She pointed a ridged finger at him "But nothing more, you understand?"

"Of course, now, if you excuse me, I have a few things to take care of before Butler returns with my family."

Artemis turned and headed for the door, Holly couldn't let him go with out just a little needling.

"So, did you find one?"

Artemis glanced over his shoulder at her, disdain plain on his face "No, all the people my Parents attempted to set me up with were just after the family's money or had nothing but air in their heads. I wanted nothing to do with any of them."

"They set you up, like on blind dates?"

"I suppose you could call it that, it was rather like me coming downstairs in the morning to find a strange woman waiting for me in the dining room. I must admit I was rather surprised the first time it happened."

Holly chuckled lightly, Artemis sighed and left the room closing the door behind him. Holly turned back to her suitcase and started unpacking some of her clothes, she unzipped a protective sleeve and pulled out a dress she had bought with out Butler seeing. Might as well dress the part right?

_

* * *

**-Later- -Fowl Manor-**

* * *

_

Artemis adjusted the sleeve of his white polo while he waited in the main entrance for Butler to return with his parents. He faintly heard a car pull into the drive way and Artemis walked over to the staircase and called up towards Holly's room.

"Are you almost ready?"

He was surprised when her voice drifted from the kitchen "Yea, I'm waiting in the kitchen for my cue."

Artemis felt an eyebrow creep up his forehead as he wondered when she had snuck by him into the kitchen and why she hadn't told him earlier she was ready.

Before he could pursue his line of questioning the door knob turned and Butler pushed the front door open, allowing Myles and Beckett to rush by and give their big brother a hug.

Artemis ruffled the twins hair as he tired to pull his legs out of their grip, he heard his mother laugh as she came in and saw his dad smiling as he stepped out of the back seat of the Bentley. The Twins disengaged from him and proceeded up the stairs to their room. Artemis mother swept down on him and gave him a hug before planting a kiss on his cheek. Glancing to make sure that her husband wouldn't hear she asked him in a whisper.

"Holly?"

Artemis shook his head gently and his mother got a worried look in her eyes.

"Later" he whispered back.

"What are you two whispering about?" his father asked as he came in with Butler following him with his arms full of luggage.

"Nothing, but if you could convince the twins to come back down I would like to tell you all something."

His Mother and Father exchanged a glance before his Father moved to the bottom of the stairs and called up for the twins. They came down a few moments later and Artemis gestured his family to follow him.

As they moved towards the kitchen Artemis spoke up. "I actually have somebody I would like to introduce you all to."

His mother raised an eyebrow while his father turned his gaze to looking into the kitchen. As the family rounded the corner they all laid eyes on Holly who was sitting on a stool at the breakfast bar wearing an emerald dress that ran down to her knees and was looped around her waist with a red band. She was eating a green salad but stopped and put down her fork as the Fowl Family came in. She stood up from the stool and gave a small curtsy to the Fowl parents who were staring at the young lady in their kitchen.

"Mother, Father, allow me to introduce Holly Short. I met her on one of my trips to America and she contacted me while you were gone to tell me she was in my area."

His Parents looked at him before going back to Holly, who blushed under the scrutiny. Artemis Sr. was the first to recover. He walked forward and held out his hand to Holly.

"Pleasure to meet you Ms. Short, I'm Artemis Fowl S-"

"Sr." Holly finished "Artemis has told me so much about you, its a pleasure to meet you in person finally."

Artemis Sr. smiled and glanced over his shoulder at Artemis.

"The pleasure is mine, and please forgive my rudeness but, I fear that I know nothing about you, or how you know my Son."

Holly gave a small chuckle "Rude, not at all, and I'm not surprised Artemis didn't tell you about me. We never planned on meeting again, pure circumstance brought me here."

Angeline decided to join the conversation. "What circumstance would that be, dear?"

"I booked a trip out here to, how shall we put it, 'Discover myself' but my housing plans fell through while I was on the flight and the land lord rented out my house to somebody else. She gave me my money back but I was still homeless for a good week. If I tried a hotel, my limited funds would have been drained rather quickly, then I remembered Artemis and gave him a call."

Artemis stepped forward and entered the conversation. "I decided to do the gentlemen thing and offered her a room here indefinitely, or until she could make other arrangements."

Artemis Sr. nodded at his son while Angeline shot him a curious look, she held his eyes for several moment and when his father turned back to Holly he gave her a very slight nod. Angeline's eyes lit up and she turned back to Holly, who was telling Artemis Sr. that she would be out as soon as she could.

"Nonsense, any lady friend of Arty is allowed to stay as long as she wants."

Artemis Sr. shot his wife a curious look but she ignored it "I see you have already started eating Holly, take your seat and we'll join you."

Artemis took a few steps forward and felt a tug on his hand, he looked down to see Beckett staring up at him. Artemis raised an eyebrow at his younger brother.

"Is the pretty lady going to be staying?"

Artemis saw Holly blush out of the corner of his eye, Artemis chuckled inside his head and nodded at his younger brother. As they all sat down and started to eat Artemis Sr. decided to try some more conversation.

"So, about how you and Artemis met, how exactly did that happen?"

Artemis raised a finger "Allow me Father, it happened on one of my, uh, business trips to America, Chicago to be precise. Butler and I were returning to our hotel when we heard a muffled scream from an alleyway. I couldn't ignore a cry for help so Butler and I detoured down the alleyway and came across Holly being mugged."

Artemis watched Holly's face tighten, he knew she never liked being the damsel in distress, but it fit for the story.

"Butler quickly dispatched the two assailants and we escorted Holly to our hotel room, after she had calmed down we treated her to dinner and found that we had a few things in common. I gave her my number and Butler and I escorted her back to her house. I quite honestly never expected to see her again. It was quite a shock to me when she called me up and was in the area. When I heard her plight I decided to offer her sanctuary here in the manor."

"Very noble of you Arty, very noble." His Father complemented him and winked, then he turned his attention back to Holly.

"So tell us a few things about yourself, Holly."

"Well..."

_

* * *

**-Later- -Holly's room-**

* * *

_

"Your Family is nice, and it was also nice meeting them face to face, and being able to hold a conversation with them."

Artemis stood out on her balcony while Holly finished putting the things she had packed earlier away into the proper places.

"Yes, well, I surmise the fact that you not having Elf ears helped with that."

Holly instinctively rubbed her long fingers over her ears, hoping they were back to normal. She sighed and studied her hands, you could almost see the parts of Artemis that she had mixed into her own DNA right now. At least anybody who studied their hands together might.

"I'll find a cure you know."

Holly turned to face Artemis as he walked in from the balcony, he closed the doors behind him.

"What?" she asked

"Your condition, It is my fault you are like this, and it will be by my hand that you are returned to normal. I won't have your ruined life on my conscious Holly, not after everything you have done for me and my Family."

Holly studied her friend carefully, he appeared to be wrestling with his emotions.

"Artemis, is everything, alright?"

Artemis composed his face and nodded loftily "Yes, I shall leave you to your own devices for the night and retire to my lab. I shall see you again tomorrow."

He walked quickly out of the room and Holly stared at him, she shook her head slowly and closed the door behind him, tomorrow was going to be interesting for sure.

* * *

**_Well, I hope it was worth the wait, its been so long since the last update that the previous chapter got deleted out of my document manager for time out._**

**_Stay with me please, I shall try to be more frequent in my uploads._**

**_Peace,_**

**_-Emile-  
_**


	6. Talking

**_-Turns on lights and sits down in chair, idly twisting back and forth- So uh, yea, hi? I dunno what to say really. Sorry doesn't seem to cover it very much. I suppose I could tell you how School has been keeping me really busy, I'm in my Final quarter of college and flat out failing a required course to gradate._ _Still need to get my certs done, and what little free time I have a usually jump straight into __Video gaming to relive some of the mounting pile of stress that all of the above cause. My Xbox and my Laptop have been getting a good workout in that regard. The Xbox more so then the other. (By the way, any of you on Xbox Live? TheEVANStriker, if you ever want to hit me up for a game.)_**

**_-Wipes dust off the screen-_**

**_Well that's better, so yea, been working on this off and on, and figured I might as well upload what little I've got just to say, "I'm not dead, nor have I abandoned this story." hope some of you enjoy it.  
_**

_-The Next Day- -Lab of Artemis Fowl-_

Artemis woke from a light doze when he heard the buzzing of the small intercom by his door. He shook his head slightly, he had started out in a trance to brainstorm, but apparently had fallen asleep. How he managed to stay balanced on the stool was unknown to him. He unfolded his stiff legs when another buzz sounded from the intercom. Artemis walked over and pressed a button.

"Yes?"

"Arty, we need to talk, now."

Artemis sighed inwardly, he was really surprised she had managed to wait till now.

He pressed the button again "One second Mother, wait in my office and I shall be there in a few moments."

There was a pause.

"Alright, but I'm serious we need to talk."

"I shall be there Mother."

Artemis waited for something else, and when nothing came figured his mother had actually walked off, he cleaned up what he had been doing and locked down the more, dangerous, parts of the lab from the twins. Finished, he proceeded to his office where he found his mother sitting in the chair behind his desk.

He raised an eyebrow and walked forward sitting down in the chair across from her.

"Yes Mother?'

"We need to talk about Holly."

Artemis held up a hand and reached over the desk tapping a panel on the top. The door behind him that was opened to the hall swung closed and locked.

"We can talk freely now, what questions do you have Mother?"

"Lets start with the obvious one, why is Holly not an elf?"

Artemis paused "That is a rather long story, but, for now I can only leave you with: I don't know. She showed up the day I sent you out on your skiing vacation, while she was here she collapsed and began to change into the form you saw last night. I have as of yet, been able to figure out a cure, though I believe the cause is...me."

His mother picked up the hesitation "What do you mean, you, as in your fault, impossible."

Artemis bowed his head, "I wish I could agree Mother, but the only theory we have is when Holly and I went into the past to get the lemur. Somehow our DNA got mixed and apparently the human strands are more dominate, resulting in her change."

Angeline watched her son for a moment "You really do think you were the cause of her change."

"There's strong evidence to support it, if you look at our hands they are the same length and size."

"Arty.."

"Your next question Mother, please."

"Alright, the skiing vacation, what was that about?"

"Ah, well, yes, the Pixie from the past that possessed you, escaped, and she freed her counter-part from this time and I had just found out about it. I wanted you someplace safe, that cabin may not have looked much but that was it."

Angeline blinked "I see, that makes sense, I'm happy that you were worried for our safety, but I'm angry at you for sending us off like that."

Artemis nodded.

"How long will Holly be here?"

"Until I find her a cure, there is nowhere else for her to go, she can not return to her people, not how she is."

It was Angeline's turn to nod.

"Alright time for the big one then, Now that shes your size, and looks to be your age, are you going to tell her you like her?"

Artemis blushed slightly "I have no idea what you mean Mother, Holly knows that I hold her in great respect."

"Artemis, you can't sneak things past your mother, I was watching you last night at the table. I saw the way you were looking at her, how do the cool people say it, ah you '_Like, Like_' her."

Artemis felt his cheeks getting warmer "Mother, to humor you, even if I did, it could never work, she may be in the guise of a human now, but she is still a fairy." Artemis saw a movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head slightly to gaze out the window. "There's nothing between us, there never will be."

He casually reached into his polo's pocket and pulled a pair of small shades, he slid them on to hide his eyes from his mother.

"But you wish there was a way, don't you?"

"Mother, I- yes, I do, Part of me wants to blame these damn hormones, but another part feels like there's something else."

Artemis stood up, "Mother I would like to continue this, but something has come up."

Angeline caught the change in her sons tone of voice "Whats wrong?"

"Nothing as of now, just need to check something with Butler." Artemis strode quickly out of the room, heading for the security office. He reached the room and found Butler already in there, panning through cameras.

"Camera 57, Butler, Anti-Shield filters."

Butler nodded, he had watched his charge walk through the halls and knew something was afoot. Butler called up the camera and engaged the filter. Nothing changed, a fairy didn't appear.

"Odd, Butler check the other cameras, I need to check on Holly."

"What did you see?"

"Fairy's, at least two, flew by the window when I was talking to Mother just now. The first caught my attention, and I put the anti-shield glasses on to see the second."

Butler nodded "Holly's in the basement, in the secure room."

Artemis nodded and left the office, heading for the wine cellar.

Holly meanwhile was pacing a small room hidden behind a normal seeming brick wall. In actually it was just a normal brick wall with a small door on hinges. The secure room really wasn't all that secure, it was just very well hidden. The hiding wasn't to make it secure against fairy's, in fact the only thing the secure room was for, was a safe place for a friend of Artemis's to arrive at.

Holly continued to pace around the room, pass the fridge, pass the TV, pass the toilet, then around again, she kept circling the hole in the ground, waiting. Quite a bit after when he said he would be there, the ground started vibrating and Mulch popped his head out of the earth.

"Heya Holly, how do you enjoy being a Mud-Women?" He said as he climbed from his hole and blew out his excess air.

Holly plugged her nose and waved a hand in front of her face, "I'm...adapting I suppose, and did you have to do that outside of the hole?"

"No, but since I haven't seen you in a while, I figured why not, plus I'm sure Artemis will notice it when he comes in." Mulch stepped out of the dirt and stepped up to Holly, he glanced up towards her.

"I would ask for a hug, but it looks like you out grew me by quite a few inches."

Artemis choose that moment to walk in "Ah, Mulch, just the fairy I wanted to see, I have a few questions you might be able to help me with."

"Sure thing Mud-whelp, shoot."

"Why are their fairy's outside the manor?" Holly looked over at Artemis who was studying Mulch, who appeared to be thinking.

"Well, if I had to hazard a guess, and mind you, I'm no genius like some, but it would probably have to do with somebody's new popularity underground." Mulch glanced at Holly as he said this.

"Mulch, what do you mean by my popularity, are you talking about one of the old reruns or-"

"Or you turning into a human? Yea that's the one." Mulch went to the fridge and rooted around for something to eat.

Artemis cleared his throat while Holly thought hard about what this meant.

"Mulch, how did the Fairy people find out about Holly, I believe we hid her quite well."

Mulch pulled his head out of the fridge holding various small food stuffs in his beard. "Now that you did" he said waving a drumstick around. "But you see, somebody hacked Foaly's system, then uploaded a bunch of pictures of you and Holly around the manor. Foaly actually asked to ask why you didn't know that your system had been hacked."

"Because it hasn't"

Mulch frowned then went back to the fridge "Oh, well then that just leaves Foaly's other theory-"

"Bugs, and Opal" finished Artemis "I don't suppose you brought a copy of the pictures?"

Mulch surfaced again and threw a small USB at Artemis. "Yep, right here, figured you and the Big Man would be very interested in it."

Artemis managed to catch the device and he studied it for a moment. "Indeed" he said as he turned and left the room.

"You know Holly, there's a few very interesting rumors going around because of those pictures." Mulch said as he turned his attention to the TV.

"Oh yea, should I even ask what?" Holly asked while folding her arms across her chest.

"Prolly not, but I'm going to tell you anyway."

"Great."

"There's this one, that says Artemis has taken you as a hostage and the LEP are covering it up because they can't get you back."

"Okay, that one's not so bad."

"Then another claiming you a traitor to your own kind and living with the humans."

"Ouch."

"You'll _Love _this one. Ironically its also the one with the most truth in it."

"Oh?"

"Yep, its a dozy, says you turned yourself human so that you could go be with your human lover, and Holly I've got to say, unless some of the pictures are doctored, some of em have me almost believing that one."

Holly didn't say anything, she was stunned by that one. Mulch realized this and turned away from the TV.

"Holly?"

"THEY SAY WHAT?" She said taking a step closer to the dwarf.

"Oh, hey look at the time." Mulch stood up suddenly panicked. "It was great to see you again Holly but I've really go-"

"If you take one step towards that dirt I'll shoot you myself."

Mulch paused and glanced towards the hole.

"Don't"

Mulch sagged "Alright, full thing is that you've transformed through some combination of Mud-Whelp and your own deviousness and both of you have confessed love for each other."

"That's, that's disgusting."

"I know."

There was silence for a moment "Have you?"

"Developed other feelings for Artemis?"

"No" Holly had waited just a beat before answering, her lie evident to both and the truth to looming to be said aloud.

"Ah" was all Mulch said "Well anyway, about that leaving thing."

"Yea, go."

Mulch started towards the hole.

"One last thing Mulch, no matter what, it was still good to see you."

"You too Holly, take care up here and watch yourself, I would hate to have to tease you with one of those rumors being true."

With that the Dwarf dived into the hole and vanished amongst churning earth.

Holly sighed and left the secure room.

"_Might as well go check in with Butler and see if he needs any help, and if I can avoid Artemis too, well, that's just a plus._

"_Right?"_

**Um, till next time, Peace...fragile peace...  
**


	7. And you are?

**_Well, 'Ello again, long time no see right? Sorry, been busy with a bunch of stuff over here in school. There was even a point where, I tried to update another story twice because I got so off track that I couldn't keep track with what all was going on. Anyway, enjoy the chapter, little short again, but better then nothing._**

After Artemis left the secure room he proceeded up to the lobby, he paused briefly to knock on the security room door. He made only a few feet away before Butler emerged and caught up to Artemis.

"Did you bring your glasses?" Artemis asked as the manservant matched his stride.

Butler reached into his suit jacket and put on a pair of shades. "Yes."

"Good, lets go have a talk with our friends and find out exactly what's going on underground." Artemis turned towards the front door and walked quickly outside, heading around the manor towards the stables.

"Why the long route Artemis?" Butler asked as they got closer

"So our friends will catch sight of us."

"Ah."

They reached the stables and Artemis walked into a small shady spot next to the stables where he walked up to where the stables joined the wall. He turned his back to the wall and waited.

"Artemis?"

"Shh, Butler, give them time."

They waited for about five minutes before a male sprite floated around the corner with a camera pointed at them. Artemis waited for a moment with a cocked eyebrow.

"You do know that we can see you?"

The sprite did nothing for a moment before it suddenly darted to the side and out of view.

Artemis sighed and called out "You do know that I'm a friend of the People?"

"Oh...right."

The sprite came around the side again, his camera pointed at the ground this time. "I've just heard stories about Butler."

Butler took a step forward. "Relax little sprite, I doubt you have any reason to be scared of me."

Artemis peeked over his glasses to see that the sprite was still shielded. "Please, stop wasting your magic, you might as well settle into the visible spectrum."

The sprite nodded and Artemis and Butler took off their glasses as the sprite became visible.

"Wasn't there another one of you?" Butler asked

"Ah yes, that would be Des, hes currently following Ms. Short around the manor." He glanced at Butler quickly. "From the outside of course."

"Of course. Now who are we talking to?"

The sprite jumped "Oh right, of course, of course, I'm Ces."

Butler spoke up "Des and Ces, you wouldn't happen to be?" he let the question trail off.

"Siblings? Yes, I'm the older by twenty years and our parents were not very creative at all in our names."

Artemis smiled a little "Is there a Bes and Aes running around my grounds at all?"

"No, but we do get that a lot."

"I imagine, now to business, what are you doing on the grounds here, and why are you video taping us?"

"Why you and Ms. Short are the biggest news to hit Haven in a long time, imagine, a Fairy turned human? Can Ms. Short still use her magic? Do you know if she'll still have the same life span?"

Artemis held up a hand to forestall anymore questions "I'm sorry, but that doesn't really answer _my_ question. What led you to believe Ms. Short was on the grounds at all?"

"Well, we had a tip dropped off at our offices, then shortly after that all these images started flooding the Peoples network. Images of you two around your manor, that gave us the green light to come up here and get some shots of our own to prove that these weren't fake."

Artemis nodded "Ah, well, I don't suppose you're broadcasting right now?"

Ces looked down at his camera "No, somethings blocking us."

"Ah, good, that still works, now, let me put it this way, The woman's status on my grounds is private. So, give us your camera, and Des's, or you'll find out some of those stories about Butler are ture, personally."

Ces swallowed hard. "Sure thing, no problem."

Des meanwhile had his own issues. Including one very angry fairy turned human.

Des couldn't get any good shots of the apparent Ms. Short from the outside so after losing her for the fifth time, he figured a little peak inside the manor wouldn't hurt. He poked open the window a little bit and sneaked in, glad that the demon Imp had actually managed to unwind the magical rule imposed on all fairies.

He glanced both ways down the hall way to discover that Ms. Short had vanished, he floated gently to the floor and started padding down the hallway. He found a door that was open a crack and peeked into the room. He saw that another door was closed and steam was coming out from a crack, and figured Ms. Short was taking a shower. The Perfect time to sneak into her room and plant a camera, he could be in and out before Ces even knew.

Des pushed hard on the heavy oak door and swung it the rest of the way into the room. He went to walk in and stopped at the threshold. It wasn't magic that stopped him, just guilt, he swallowed hard and took a ginger step in. He did this for a few steps until he was a few feet into the room. He glanced around again and realized that the guilt he was feeling was just something felt wrong.

He discovered what was wrong when the door swung shut abruptly and Ms. Short settled into view, she was holding a carton of baby powder and grinning. She ripped the top off and doused the area in front of her with powder.

Des was curious as to the why of this when he realized that he disturbed the falling powder enough to reveal his position.

"Gotcha" Holly said as she dived towards Des and put him in a hold.

Des squealed and forgot to keep his shield up as he tried to get away but it was no use, Holly had him by one of his arteries in his wing. If he tried to get away he could rip it and die. When he realized this he got very still.

Holly relaxed her hold just a bit "Good, smart sprite, now what's your name?"

Des almost sighed, that was an easy one. "Des"

"Des, alright, next question, you've been recording us here in the manor havent you?"

"Yes" Des squealed, scared of what would happen when he answered.

"Alright, wheres Opal?"

Des blinked "Opal, Opal Koboi? I don't know?"

Holly put a little pressure on Des's weak point "You don't know, or won't tell me, or did Opal not tell you where she was hiding when she sent you to spy on us?"

Des swallowed really hard "Opal didn't send us to do anything, we work for PPTV!" He was almost crying by the time he finished.

Holly blinked then released her hold on Des, stepping away.

"Uh, Sorry, about the pinching and all, I kinda thought you worked for Opal."

Des glanced up at her and blinked "Well, I don't, but trust me, you won't see me around here anymore."

With that Des vanished from sight and Holly saw the window open and close. Holly gave a small chuckle and glanced at the white spot she left in the center of the room. Then she glanced at herself, covered with white powder. She went over to the bathroom and opened the door, the shower was already running, and she did need to get clean after all.

Artemis knocked softly on Holly's door before entering, when there was no answer he called out.

"Holly, I'm coming in." He swung the door open and his eyes were immeditally drawn to the white spot on the floor. From the signs that he could see it looked like a small struggle had taken place in the middle of the powder. Setting aside the question for now Artemis walked over to the bathroom door and knocked loudly. All the doors inside the manor were soundproof so it was understandable that his next natural reaction was to give the knob a turn and a quick shove to see if she was in there.

His ears were greeted with the sound of running water and Artemis instantly realized his own foolish mistake. He gulped hard, and closed his eyes, fearful for Holly's reaction. When nothing happened, he opened his eyes a slit and realized that Holly was in the shower stall and hidden from sight by a clouded plane of glass.

Or at least mostly hidden, her outline was clearly visible and Artemis gulped hard. He was stuck rooted to the spot for several moments before his mind manged to get back in control of his body and he reached in and pulled the door closed, shutting it gently. He walked quickly, and stiffly out of Holly's room, trying hard to ignore the feeling he had.

Holly walked out of the shower ten minutes later rubbing her hair with a towel, her eyes roamed the room and were caught by the white spot in the carpet. Her cop instincts kicked in and she focused on the spot, noting what caught her attention.

There was a foot print in the powder, something that had not been there before she went to take a shower. Too small to be Butler's and Artemis would never...

The foot was pointed in the direction of the door, it was possible that Artemis could have come in, realized she was in the shower and left. But he would have taken care to avoid the powder, so did he...

"Nah" Holly said to herself and banished the thought from her mind heading for the closet to find something to wear.

Later that night Butler, Artemis, and Holly met in the dojo. Or rather, Butler and Holly worked out while Artemis thought over the days events.

"Did you really need to spill powder all over the floor like that Holly?"

Holly sighed and ducked another punch from Butler "How come I _knew_ that the would be the question you cared about the most?"

"I understand the logical end of it of course, but the cost of that carpet is quite exuberant."

"Artemis, there's nothing in this house that doesn't cost more then I made in a year on the LEP"

Artemis noted Holly's choice of words in his mind before sighing himself.

"It's a simple question Holly, but let's move on. Butler and I confiscated Ces's, device, and Des was all to keen to give his up after his run in with you. But the question prominent on my mind, is if Opal really set up this media stunt, what is she really driving at. There must be a goal of some sort in her mind."

Butler grunted before responding "Distraction maybe?"

Artemis nodded "Perhaps, but from what?"

**_So, part of this chapter upload, was for "About damn time" another one was for "May have gotten a Job :D" Wish me luck with my Interview eh?  
Peace,  
Emile.  
_**


	8. Atlantis HO!

**_HAH! I bet you all thought this story was dead, didn't you. It's cool, you can admit it. Because, it...kinda was. I tried really hard to work on it, but things kept cropping up. So heres a brief rundown of why this chapter is...four months late:  
My Birthday in Augest. (21!) I wanted to update this story then, but, well, its wasn't very good.  
Graduating School, trying to find a Job, life...  
But the biggest thing I think was my cousin who kicked me out, causing me even more grief. She just can't leave well enough alone!  
Anyway, I hope that this extra long chapter makes up for it. (Which may get reuploaded when I get home, some how my school copy lost over 1000 words! I looked through it, still makes sense though.) So as my strict apologie for going on so long with out an update, I offer you a twenty page chapter..._**

**_Just cause it's been so long: I do not own Artemis Fowl, that right belongs to Eoin._**

**_Atlantis, HO! Chapter 8_**

**_Summery: If you need a bigger summery, read read! :P _**

**_As a note for those who have forgotten Opal just launced a media stunt to expose Holly, also, Artemis's family met Holly in her human form. The heros dealt with the stunt easily and have just started wondering why Opal did this...well..._**

* * *

Haven

* * *

"It was all a distraction!" Foaly complained as he galloped through police plaza, while Haven was on full alert outside.

Part of Foaly had to hand it to Opal it was a very nice distraction, he had so foolishly believed that the hack attempt was what she had planned, and forgot that there was two of them, and one of them had some impressive magical powers. He would still have to figure out how Opal got all the bombs into Atlantis. But, for now he was putting out the call to every fairy below, and above the surface, Atlantis needed to be evacuated, now.

Commander Trouble was already at the scene along with his brother, but Haven was suffering, most of the police force had left to help get civilians out of the collapsing city. They had evacuation plans of course, but it was still a rush to get everybody out even with help from Havens LEP, partially in thanks to Opal destroying half of the shuttle bays with bombs. Foaly skidded to a stop as another thought came to his mind. Could the Opals want the LEP in Atlantis, if she had more bombs planted once the majority of the LEP was there she could bring the rest of the dome down and cripple the LEP force.

"We have to risk it" he muttered himself as he continued his gallop to the Op Booth, and they would need some more help. He just had to get back to the Op Booth and then he could call Artemis. Perhaps two genii working together could beat both Opals, or maybe just Artemis by himself, he had done it before. Plus Holly wouldn't hurt either.

* * *

Fowl Manor

* * *

Artemis was working on his laptop, more research into a cure for Holly when he received an incoming video call. Curious Artemis accepted the call to be greeted by Foaly's face.

"Artemis, major trouble down below, get Holly and Butler and get to Tara, we need help now."

"Foaly, whats wrong?"

"Opal attacked Atlantis."

Artemis stood up, pushing his chair away from the desk. "Send a shuttle, I'll get them."

"Shuttle is waiting Artemis, and one last thing, if Opal was using this attack to distract us, what would her end goal be-" an alarm kicked on behind Foaly "-Think about it on that way here, I'll meet you at the shuttle port. I've got to go."

"Foaly." Artemis called as Foaly ended the call. Artemis spent a few seconds thinking hard about the possibility's of this being a trap, then thought about how bad it must be to bring Holly underground. Making up his mind he made strides to the wall where he pushed the intercom button.

"Holly, Butler, pack up, we're going to Haven." Artemis walked away from the intercom and shut down his laptop sliding it into a travel case that he pulled from a drawer. Two seconds later the intercom crackled.

"Artemis you better answer within five seconds or I'm coming up there!"

Artemis sighed and walked back over to the intercom. "Really Captain, yelling is not necessary and you should be heading to your room to pack."

"Artemis what is going on?"

"That's a question you can ask Foaly when we see him, all I can tell you is that the Opals have apparently launched an attack on Atlantis."

There was silence for a few seconds. "I'll be ready in five."

Artemis paused "Butler?"

"Yes, Artemis?"

"Make sure you're ready as well and bring a Neutrino, I have a feeling you'll need it."

"Yes Artemis."

"Good, Meet in the lobby in Five Minutes."

Artemis clicked off his intercom and went back to getting everything he would need ready.

In shortly less then five minutes the three of them were in the lobby getting ready to leave. Artemis was working on writing a note to his family. It would be rather abrupt and he expected multiple calls from his mother for it, but the seriousness of the situation called for it.

When he finished the note he turned to the two of them and nodded. "Another adventure awaits."

Holly glanced back at him. "You sound like your looking forward to it."

Artemis shook his head as they got into the car. "No, just, apprehensive. I'm trying to figure out what Opal would gain by attacking Atlantis at this point."

Holly looked out the window as Butler headed down the drive. "Well, There's the fact that it houses some of the most dangerous criminals known to fairy kind."

Artemis nodded "That's true, but how many would join with Opal, she would need to give them a very good reason to."

Holly thought about it for a moment. "You know, I'm sure Foaly has already had this thought, but she could be trying to get as many LEP in one place to take out as many as possible. Less resistance for whatever she has planned."

"When I was talking to Foaly, I have a feeling he was heading in the same direction as you are Captain."

"Well, either way, it doesn't really matter right? We're still heading there, and as is a good portion of the LEP as well."

Artemis looked back out the window. "Let's say her plan is to get rid of as many LEP as she can in one swoop. What would be the best way to accomplish it?" He looked across at Holly. "You have been to Atlantis, correct?"

Holly nodded "Every LEP Captain does, just in case we need to be called in for an emergency."

"Like now."

Holly nodded again "Like now."

"Well then, you have always had a good view on things Holly, what do you think Opal would do to try and take out as much of the LEP as possible?"

Holly thought about it for a moment. "If shes using the first attack, whatever that is, to lure the LEP there. I would say her next step after that would be to collapse the Dome if she hasn't already."

"Millions of tones of seawater crashing down, not to mention the sudden change in pressure, that would do it."

Holly blinked. "Yea. That would do it."

Forty minutes later found the group in a shuttle heading for Atlantis. Butler was crammed in the back of the shuttle listening over Holly and Artemis shoulders while Foaly gave them a quick run down.

"This morning, we lost contact with Atlantis, due to what we assumed were magma flares."

Artemis steepeled his fingers and leaned forward "Opal has already done that once, did you not defend against it last time?"

Foaly's back hoof pawed against the ground. "Well...no...Opal never tries the same thing twice."

Artemis leaned back into his seat. "Yes, but this is a different Opal, one who has not attempted that before. It is still new to her."

Foaly paused for a moment. "Right." He turned to a keyboard behind him. "Anyway, after I managed to break through the static. I started receiving reports of explosions all over Atlantis." Foaly called up an image of the dome that protected Atlantis. Several sections were glowing red and a few others had small red dots at various points. "The red areas are places where the dome was critically breached and the blast doors closed automatically. The areas with red dots are those where there is water entering into the dome through a crack and in danger of breaking all the way."

Artemis studied the map trying to think of places where he would place explosives, while Holly was comparing the top down view with her memory of Atlantis, and thinking about who was where when the attack started. She had a chilling thought.

"Foaly, I know most of the Atlantians are capable of breathing underwater, but the entire tourist section was blown. Did anybody get out of there before the doors sealed?"

Foaly shook his head slowly. "No, most were gone within seconds, all the seawater rushing in, crushed them flat. There were a few who managed to find somewhat safe places. We're working on reaching them, but it's difficult. Lots of things to move and little time to do it in." "He pointed to a section of one of the red areas, a green dot appeared at his touch." We managed to get in contact with some survivors here. But we have no way of reaching them without exposing them to the changed pressure outside or the water."

Holly stared at the green dot "How did they survive?"

Foaly pointed in between two of the larger cones of dome. "Opal blew out major support braces here, along with a host of smaller supporting ones. A group of about twenty got lucky and were buried by the falling rubble inside one of the gift shops. The rubble kept them alive, but the building is slowly flooding. Not a perfect seal against the outside."

Artemis nodded. "Can't go in through the top of the rubble without risking their deaths, tell me though Foaly. If this Atlantis was built over the old one, might there be a way in through some ruined areas?"

Foaly nodded "Ahead of you there Artemis, I already sent in Trouble and Grub through an underground pathway. The only thing is part of it collapsed and is flooded with pockets of water."

"So they need to figure out some way to drain the water without destabilizing anything around them or flooding even more."

Foaly nodded again. "Yea, They think they have found one of the old emergency drainage valves, but we need to get somebody down to the power room of the old Atlantis and start the pumps running from there before the flooded areas can be drained."

Artemis nodded again, then looked over his shoulder at Butler. "What do you say old friend? Up for a little bit of spelunking?"

Butler nodded slowly, careful not to bang his shaven dome on anything. "Yes, as long as you stay with Foaly."

Artemis nodded "Of course, I had no plans of going anywhere. Foaly and I are the brains, you and Holly are the Muscles."

Holly looked at him. "So now I'm just a muscle? Great." She blinked as another thought hit her. "Only one thing Artemis, I never toured the old Atlantis area. But won't Butler be a little big to just stroll through?"

Foaly snorted softly. "We haven't built a building big enough that Butler could just stroll through." He glanced at Butler. "There are some rather big areas that you can use to get to the pump room. Nice large emergency hallways, but you'll still be squeezing through some small areas."

Butler nodded again. "Great, squeezing through collapsing fairy ruins, that was always on my list of things to do."

"Sorry Butler, but all the records I can find indicate the main power switch was jammed off. Holly may be strong, and have a little bit more weight to throw around-" Foaly ignored Holly's protest of 'Hey!' "-But she still may not be strong enough to get it unjammed."

"What should I do if I can't get it unjammed?" Butler asked.

"I'll figure something out. But there's a good chance that this plan will work."

"Alright, now what will these two be doing while I'm off unjamming this switch?" Butler asked while gesturing to Holly and Artemis.

Foaly glanced at them. "Artemis will be with me, helping me coordinate and keep track of people we have rescued. Maybe I'll see if he can tap into some radio frequencies and see if he can find anybody else in the collapsed areas. Otherwise we'll just be keeping track of people we got out of the collapsing sections. Holly I'll send out at I see fit."

The three of them nodded and the Pilot's voice came out of a speaker.

"Approaching Atlantis...Dang it's a mess. Hope you guys can save it."

Holly spoke up to her companions "That's what we're here for."

The deep water shuttle had no windows, so Artemis and Butler's first look at Atlantis was through the docking tube that would take them to the disaster station. Artemis marveled at the technology that must have been used to build this. As he noted areas where air was escaping through cracks in the dome a thought stuck him.

"_When I first found out about the People, all I could think of was how I could exploit them to my advantage. Now I'm risking my life, and Butlers, to save them...Mother would be proud."_

Butler meanwhile was looking down through the bottom of the tube, trying to see if he could get any clues about where he was shortly about to be crawling. Halfway through the tube, Foaly glanced behind him and looked surprised to see Butler.

He stopped and waited for Butler to catch up to him before stopping him. "Butler, I know that you want to protect Artemis through this entire tube, but you need to be on the shuttle to get access to the larger tunnels. There's no way into the old Atlantis for you this way."

Butler glanced down the tube at Artemis and Holly who were watching him. Artemis nodded slightly, and Butler relaxed, just a little bit. He glanced back down at Foaly, "Alright." He turned back towards the shuttle and called out over his shoulder. "Stay out of trouble you two."

Holly smiled just a little bit and called out. "You're the only one who will be seeing Trouble."

Butler grinned as he realized the Holly was referring to the elf before he stepped back into the shuttle and the pilot sealed the doors behind him.

Artemis continued down the tube and stepped through the portal on the other side. As he passed through the cover he was hit by a wave of noise as fairies all around the room were trying to coordinate relief efforts. Artemis tsked inside his head.

"_You think that such an advanced species would have a more organized way of doing this." _He glanced around at the chaos. _"But then again, this is a good sign perhaps." _Artemis was distracted from his thoughts by Foaly and Holly who came in behind him. Holly nudging him gently and Foaly gesturing at them to follow

They followed him into a semi-quite room off to the side. Foaly pointed Artemis then at a terminal nearby.

"Use that to see if you can find any frequencies that are broadcasting. There is also a screen you can call up to watch Butlers progress. I've given the Pilot a tracker to give to Butler, then overlayed the signal over an old blueprint read out. It's out of date, but with that, you can get an idea of where hes at."

Artemis went over and sat down. There was a small communicator next to the monitor. Foaly pointed at it. "That has a line dedicated to Butler's radio, just in case something comes up as well as letting you listen to the frequencies you'll be browsing."

Artemis nodded and put the headset in and settled in to help. "So I'm a coordinator then."

Holly tapped Foaly on the shoulder. "What about me?"

Foaly pointed to a small trunk sitting on the other side of the room. "There's an diving suit in there. Get it on, you'll be on call to help anybody we can get a hold of. You'll need it just in case you need to pass through a submerged area." Holly nodded and went over to the trunk, pulling out the suit and glancing at it.

"You got me a size that fits right?" She asked as she stepped behind a curtain to put on the suit.

Foaly snorted as he went over to a terminal like Artemis's, "Of course." He stood in front of the terminal and put on his own headset. He turned to Artemis, tapping him on the shoulder and handing him a sheet. "These are the frequencies that I'm covering." Artemis nodded as he tapped at his one screen keyboard.

"Foaly, I may have something. The signal is quite bad though. Do you have any filters that could clean it up?"

Foaly took note of the frequency Artemis was on before putting it into his computer. He played with a program for a moment before turning and grabbing a helmet from the table and turning to face Holly who just walked out from behind the curtain in the suit. He tossed the helmet at her and she caught it, looking surprised.

"Artemis already found somebody, I'm double checking the signals origin-" Artemis raised an eyebrow at Foaly's back "-But it looks like you'll be passing through a flooded area to get to them. Artemis and I will track you and let you know how you're doing."

Holly nodded and turned towards the door. She turned back to Foaly. "What am I supposed to do when I get there? Without suits I won't be able to guide them back."

"You're going to be there to get eyes on first. We'll figure out something when you get there. Even if it's just attaching a beacon and telling them to wait."

Artemis turned back to his screen to continue checking frequencies. "Butlers just entered the collapsed area."

"Alright, some of those fairies are lucky that they were in the shuttle-bay when Opal attacked."

"Lucky that Butler and I came to help."

"Yes, thank you for coming on such short notice."

Artemis said nothing for a few moments, and Foaly considered that conversation ended.

Then, "Anytime."

Foaly glanced at Artemis; the young teen was focused hard on his screen. Almost like he was refusing to look at Foaly, and refusing to admit that he was turning into a good guy.

Foaly let the subject drop again when his headset came alive with reports on new cracks in the dome. Artemis was likewise distracted by Butler.

Butler meanwhile had been dropped off inside an old shuttle-bay. The place was half collapsed and filled with water. Butler sighed as he waded through the gloomy water with only a LEP helmet in hand as his light source. He reached the other side of the bay and looked around for the large tunnel that the Pilot had told him to look for. A maintenance shaft he said. Finding it and remembering that large for a fairy was almost normal for a human, Butler crouched and started wading through the tunnel. The water started halfway out at the bottom of his chest. 15 meters in it was touching his upper chest. 25 meters after that it was touching the bottom of his chin, and Butler was thoroughly soaked through and starting to feel the cold of the water.

He brought his hand out of the water and spoke out loud towards the helmet.

"Artemis, The rest of the tunnel is flooded, I need to know how much further I would need to go."

"_One second Friend." _There was a pause while Artemis did some calculations. _"Butler, you're going to need to back track and try a different tunnel. Its over 30 meters to the other end. With no chances of air pockets that I can safely guess at."_

Another voice cut into the conversation

"_There's no time Mud-Boy, by the time he turns back and finds another route. The Fairies we are trying to reach will be dead!"_

Butler resisted the urge to hit his palm on the wall.

Artemis's voice snapped out. _"I know that Commander, but I'm not going to risk Butlers life for this."_

Butler spoke up again. "That's because you don't have to Artemis. I owe the Fairies a great deal, it is a worthy risk."

Butler tucked the helmet into his pocket, muffling Artemis and his protests. He did a few deep breaths to prepare for the swim then dived in. It wasn't so bad, Butler was mostly numb to the shock of the cold water from being in it so long. He kept his eyes opened for air pockets and tried to count the meters as he swam as fast as he could. A normal person would not have made it, and if Butler wasn't so fit, or had been boosted by fairy magic, he would not have either.

He broke through the surface of the water on the other side hauling in breaths of air. He wiped dripping water out of his eyes and stood up, noticing a set of stairs. He gladly stepped out of the water and shivered a little bit. He was also glad to note that this tunnel was quite warm though, so it didn't seem like he would have to worry about hypothermia, too much anyway.

He followed the signs proclaiming '_maintenance and power' _as they led him down various other tunnels and lines. Eventually he reached a room that he could almost stand up in and looked around. This was definitely a pump room. Large see-through cylinders dotted the area with big pipes feeding into walls. He spotted a rusted lever sticking out of the wall. There was a faded sign painted on the wall behind it. Butler could just barely make out 'EMERGENCY PUMP CONTROL' from the ink. He walked over to the switch then realized that inset into the wall as it was all he would have to do is lean down on it.

Butler started applying his force and after a few moments the lever groaned and started to bend. Butler was starting to worry that he would break the lever before getting it unjammed when there was a pop inside the wall and the lever dropped into the 'ON' position. Butler fell to the floor in an undignified manor, grunting as he hit. He looked around the room as the pumps started groaning and creaking as they moved. He watched as water began to pour into the pumps and nodded. He realized that Artemis was talking to him through the helmet.

He pulled it out of his pocket. _"Good job Butler, Foaly has activated the air pumps on his end and the water is draining out of the plaza that the Commander and his Brother were in. Do you feel like you can make it back?"_

"I'm not sure Artemis, this tunnel is warm but everywhere else is cold, I'm surprised Hypothermia hasn't set in yet."

"_Very well, give me a moment to help Holly while I try to find another way for you to get back."_

"Preferably, one that doesn't involve swimming please."

"_If you wish."_

Butler sat in down and rubbed his arms over each other to try and rub in more heat and waited.

Artemis meanwhile was guiding Holly through one of the flooded areas.

"_There should be a hall to your left Holly, from the reports I'm getting there should be a large vent there that's letting water into the building."_

"Possible way in?" She asked as she kicked her fins and started down the hallway. She was halfway down the hallway when she saw the vent, and her problem.

She stopped and floated there for a moment. "Artemis, this vent cover is sealed. What ever water is getting in, must be getting in around weak spots. If I take this cover off the building will flood."

"_Very well Holly give me a moment."_

Holly swam a bit further down the hallway to see if she could find another way into the building. She came across a sealed door.

"Artemis, I found a door, might lead into the building, or it could just be storage."

"_I believe I know which door you are referring to, it is storage, but there's a smaller vent in there that leads into the building. At the very least you could call out for an answer, if you can get in quickly enough. Is there a number next to the door?"_

Holly looked around. "Yea, I see one, JS458"

"_Very good Holly, give me one moment while I hack in."_

"Hack? Doesn't Foaly have the codes?"

"_Foaly is busy at the moment Holly, this is faster."_

Holly waited for a few moments more before Artemis replied.

His satisfied voice came out of her headset. _"Ah, there we go, I'm in. Now Holly position yourself against the door. I'm going to tell it to quickly open. As soon as you are through you need to shout out so that I can close the door again. Perhaps we might get lucky and only a little water will get in."_

Holly positioned herself flat against the door and braced herself. "Ready."

Artemis didn't respond he just opened the door and Holly felt herself pulled inwards as the water rushed in. As soon as she was through she shouted out.

"CLOSE IT NOW!"

The door thudded shut behind her and the rooms water quickly leveled out. Mixed up janitorial supplies floated at about half the rooms height and Holly noticed that the water level was getting lower.

"Is the vent level with the floor Artemis?"

"_Yes, how much water got in?"_

"Not a whole lot, but if anybody is near that vent, they are going to be getting really nervous for a little while."

"_Yes, dive down and see if you can fit through the vent."_

Holly crouched and looked at the cover, it would be tight, but she would make it.

"Yea, It will be a squeeze, but I can make it."

"_Very good Holly, Do that. Butler needs my help at the moment, beep me if you find survivors in there."_

"Alright Artemis, good luck with Butler."

Artemis had already switched his attention back to Butler.

"_Butler?"_

Butler shook the sleep from his head as Artemis spoke up from the helmet. He raised it to his level.

"Yes, I'm here, Mostly."

There was silence for a moment. _"Make sure the Commander or Grub give your immune system a boost when you meet up with them."_

"Meet up?"

"_Yes, one of the pipes that should now be clear of water, or at least only partly flooded. Will lead you straight to the plaza that you just drained. It looks like the Commander has just begun crossing it. If you hurry you might be able to meet up with them at the halfway exit point on your end."_

Butler nodded to himself and pushed himself off the wall, still slightly shivering he looked around. "Artemis I may need a little help, there are no signs pointing me towards this plaza."

"_One__ second friend."_

Butler started jogging in place to help warm up some more. He had been at it for only a few moments before Artemis came back on.

"_Butler, Listen carefully, you will need to follow my instructions exactly."_

"Alright Artemis."

"_Go down the hallway on your left." _

Butler started down the hallway, he spent the next ten minutes or so listen to Artemis's cool voice coming from the helmet. Just occasional notes of _'Left', 'Right', _or_ 'Straight'. _Butler eventually reached a large door as he approached it hissed and slid open slowly.

"_The Commander should be on the other side, I must return to Holly. Help out the Commander however you see fit Friend."_

"Okay Artemis."

As he walked out he was greeted with caution by Trouble, who had his Neutrino out, pointed at the ground. Grub was shaking too much to even have pulled his out of his holster.

Butler raised a hand as he stood up. "Evening Commander, Shall we see about rescuing those trapped tourists?"

Trouble holstered his Neutrino when he realized it was Butler. "Good Gods, I thought you were a Troll for a second there."

Butler looked down at his soggy and dripping suit. Then glanced back at the light flooding into the otherwise dark plaza. It seemed fair enough that he could be considered for a small Troll. He looked down at Trouble. "There are Trolls in here?"

Trouble shrugged his shoulders. "There were a few here for testing when the old place collapsed, we recovered most of them. We wanted to put the rest down as dead, but you know how tough they are.

Butler found his hand crawling under his jacket to his sig saucer. He pulled it out and frowned when it started pouring water out of the barrel. "I don't suppose you happen to have a spare Neutrino? I left mine in the shuttle."

Trouble shook his head. "Sorry Butler, just stay back in case we do run into a Troll."

Butler nodded "Fair enough."

Holly meanwhile had just popped the grate off the other end of the vent. She squeezed her shoulders through and looked down. She groaned slightly, it was a good meter to the ground, and her arms were trapped in the vent with the rest of her body. She wiggled forward some more and managed to free one of her arms. She did the same with the second one, but when she did, she lost her grip keeping her in the vent and what was already out, dragged the rest of her out of the vent.

She fell forward in an undignified heap, landing hard on the floor. "Ow..." she muttered as she righted herself and stood up.

"_Is everything alright Holly?"_

"Yes, why?"

"_I heard Ow."_

"Oh, Turns out that the rooms been modified I guess, cause this end of the vent wasn't level with the floor."

"_It wasn't remodeled Holly, there was a 1.2 meter drop to the ground. I figured you could handle it."_

"Gee, thanks for the heads up Mud-Boy."

"_Anytime Captain."_

Holly shook her head and looked around the room, she was in a stairwell in what looked like the second floor.

"Artemis, Wheres the signal coming from, up or down?"

"_Give me one moment."_

Holly tried looking down the stairwell to see if she could see anybody before looking up.

"_Down Holly, as close as I can pinpoint the signal, you're looking for a room on the right side of the hallway at the bottom of the stairs."_

"Alright, thanks Artemis." Holly began beating it down the stairs. She jumped the 1st floor landing to head right into the stairs to the basement. As she reached the bottom she found herself splashing through ankle deep water. As she ran down the hallway looking out for a door she saw various vents that had water leaking out of them.

"Artemis, we've got another problem. If there are survivors down here, rescuing them needs to be a big priority."

"_What's wrong Holly?"_ Artemis's voice was calm, as usual.

"There's water leaking into this building, not just from one vent, all of them. This place will flood soon, and if a vent breaks..." Holly trailed off.

"_Very well, I get the picture, I'll see if I can come up with anything. I'll need more information though. The door __you're__ looking for should be just ahead."_

Holly ran up to the door and tried the pad. It sparked and fizzed as water leaked out of the bottom of it. She slapped it in frustration.

"Artemis the door won't open, panels fried."

"_One moment."_

A few seconds later the door started slowly sliding open. Water began to pour out of it and Holly grew surprised as the water continued to cascade out of the doorway. By the time the door was fully opened Holly was grabbing the doors frame to keep from being swept away and the water level was noticeably higher in the hallway.

"Artemis! Close the Door! It's breached on the other side! The place is flooding!"

Holly heard nothing except the pounding of keys in her headset. _"I am trying Holly, but the door is refusing me access. It__'__s stuck open."_

Holly braced herself as more water splashed against her helmet.

"_Holly, I think the signal might be a trap, it has vanished from my computer."_

"Great. Double check just in case."

"_I already have, you need to get out of there Holly..." _Holly could hear a small alarm beeping in the background.

"Artemis?"

"_Holly! Get out now! The water is getting hotter, it is a trap! Get back to the vent now or you'll be cooked alive!"_

Holly noticed it at the moment, the water running over her gloves was extremely hot. She hissed and let go of the frame letting the water push her halfway down the hallway before she got her feet under her and started running. It was slower going since the water was now up to her waist. She was also sweating. Even this far down the water was almost unbearably hot. Then to make matters worse the vents started blasting out steaming hot water as well.

Artemis was urging her along in her ear. _"Holly, 25 Celsius, 28, 32."_

Holly reached the stairs and tore up them as fast as she could, the water was rising quickly behind her now. She flew by the 1st floor landing and raced up the stairs to the second. When she reached the vent she was just working her way into it when a clunk sounded and more water rushed in from up the stairs as well as flowing out of the vent she was in.

Holly's eyes were wide as her skin started to get unbearably hot. Seconds later her magic kicked in and started healing the burns that were forming.

"Artemis! Open that Janitors door! I need cold water in here now!"

"_I'm trying __Holly;__ Opal has locked me out of the system. Foaly, I need help over here, I can't out do both of them."_

Holly was only halfway through the vent and was getting extremely tired, plus her Magic was taking longer to heal, she was almost out of time.

"..Artemis...!" she groaned out.

"_There!" _His triumphant call as well as Foaly's cheer echoed through Holly's headset.

The water was still hot but it began cooling down and Holly continued to pull herself through the vent. Eventually emerging through into the janitorial door and kicking weakly against the current and out into the hall.

She kicked around the bend in the hallway and sank to the bottom, bracing herself against a wall to resist the now weak current.

"Artemis..."

"_Yes Holly?"_

"Is N01 around at all?"

"_He is on his way."_

"Good, I 'm really tired; I hope he can boost my tank again."

"_Holly, you need to work your way back to the shuttle-bay."_

"I know Artemis, but maybe just a nap first..."

"_Captain Short, you are to get back to the shuttle-bay right now."_

Holly perked up "Did you just give me an order Artemis?"

"_Yes I did, and if you plan on doing anything about it, I suggest you come face me."_

"Oh, Count on it." Holly felt strength flow into her limbs and she pushed off the wall and made for the airlock to the shuttle-bay.

Foaly turned to face Artemis. "You know you're going to get the stuffing beat out of you for that right?"

Artemis nodded. "I would suspect so, however it worked, she is on the way back."

Foaly shrugged and turned back to his console. "It's your hide Mud-Boy."

Artemis turned back to his own console as well.

"_Butler, how are you doing?"_

"We're managing Artemis, we found the survivors and we are working on getting them out of the rubble."

"_Butler, you sound strained."_

Butler was currently holding up a heavy chunk of rubble so a fairy child could be pulled out by Trouble. It was rather hard to hold the rubble in one hand and then talk to Artemis in the other. Trouble gave him the okay as he pulled the child clear and backed away. Butler let the rubble drop with a grunt.

"There much better."

"_I take it your rescue is going well?"_

"Indeed, we just pulled the last survivor out and are getting ready to head back out across the plaza."

"_Ah, Butler, I must warn you, the Opals just sprung a trap on Holly, so be on the lookout for anything suspicious."_

"Great."

Trouble patched into their conversation. "What was that I heard about Opals?"

"_They just tried to bake Captain Short in burning water. She tried to trap her in a collapsed building with a signal from some fake survivors."_

"Great, that's just what we need. Thanks for the heads up Fowl. We'll keep a look out, who knows what she might have planned as we're crossing the plaza."

"_If I would hazard a guess, she may have remote access to the pumps, and is waiting for you to get down there before she reverses them."_

Trouble swallowed hard "Flooding the area, and any fairy that's with us who can't swim or has no helmets drown."

"_Exactly, so I suggest that you make your journey quickly Commander."_

Foaly's voice chimed in _"I'm with Artemis on this one, seems the most likely thing she would try."_

Trouble looked up at Butler. "Do you mind carrying Fairies so we can move quickly?"

Butler looked behind him at the ragtag group of 15 or so fairies. "I don't mind, I can carry the children in my arms and the adults can hold on to my back. If they are up to it of course."

Trouble turned to the group behind them. "Well how about it, when we reach the plaza, who wants to ride the big guy?"

Nobody raised their hands; they just turned to Butler who tried to smile convincingly.

Ten minutes later found Butler holding a bunch of fairy children in his arms with a few adults hanging off his back.

"You're sure he won't eat them? He looks vaguely troll-ish"

Trouble sighed. "Yes, I'm sure, now shape up and get ready to run."

The group prepared themselves, most of the fairies looked nervous, except for those in Butlers arms, Trouble, and amazingly Grub. Trouble raised a hand.

He pointed forward and shouted "GO!" The group took off at a sprint, Butler leaving the fairies far behind him as he ran as fast as he could across the plaza. He reached the other end quickly and turned to see that the rest of the party was only halfway across. He turned to put down the little ones and that's when he heard it.

It was a groaning rushing sound, almost like...

As the last of the fairies dropped off his back he gave a shout. "QUICKLY! HERE IT COMES!"

Sure enough out of various pipes in the ceiling water started blasting out and into the plaza. The water level quickly rose. He turned to the fairies that he escorted. "Go, run to the shuttle, I'll get them." The biggest fairy nodded and turned to usher the others across the area. Butler jumped down the stairway and landed in thigh deep water. He started powering through it as he struggled to reach the fairies who were already struggling to stay above the water.

He reached them as a wave of water swept them under. Butler dived forward and wrapped his grabbed for the arms of two of the fairies. As he brought them coughing to the surface he felt something on his back.

"Go!" Trouble shouted in his ear. "We've got the rest on."

Butler nodded and turned back to the stairway. By now the water was up to his chest and it was slow going. By the time he dragged his body out of the rushing water, he had been submerged up to his chin again and was struggling to haul in breaths. He stumbled out of the water and started running for the shuttle, the water continued to pour in and if he didn't reach the airlock with the others. They would drown.

Meanwhile Artemis and Foaly were trying hard to counter the Opals takeover of the pumps. Or rather Foaly was doing that while Artemis was concentrated on locking down the controls for the airlock, which one of the Opals was trying to hack so she could close them on the last members of the party.

"Foaly." Artemis said tersely, as code was flying across the screen.

"I know, I know." Foaly was being challenged as well. "This is fast, even for them."

Suddenly the attacks stopped and Artemis looked over his shoulder at Foaly.

Artemis put a hand to his headset. "Butler?"

There was a pause before Butler answered. _"We made it __Artemis;__ we're on our way back. Any word from Holly?"_

"Not ye-"

"Fowl!"

Artemis turned to face Holly as she stormed in and punched him hard on the shoulder. Artemis cringed and stepped to the side several times, unbalanced. Holly glared at him with fake anger. "Don't you ever give me orders again, got it?" She punched him again.

Artemis rubbed his shoulder ruefully. "Your message is loud and clear Captain."

Holly smiled and winked at him "Good, just so we understand each other."

Foaly tapped Holly on the shoulder. "I hate to disturb this rather touching scene, but we still have some evacuations to coordinate."

Artemis and Holly glanced at each other. Holly glanced away with a smile while Artemis huffed and turned back to his computer.

The rest of the evacuations were pulled off without any further trouble from the Opals. It didn't stop any of the hero's from staying alert though. The group gathered in the last shuttle-bay to see the last one off. They were going to head to the last emergency shuttle-bay and use those to escape. Holly turned to Artemis to notice his thoughtful look.

"Whats up?" she asked nudging him gently.

Artemis's eyes were roaming the dome. "If I was planning on taking revenge, now would be the perfect time."

"How?"

"Thinking about it now it makes sense. They distract us with a couple a traps that we have a chance of surviving. Then we're on guard for the rest of the evacuation. When nothing happens we start to assume that perhaps her plan has failed and we've won. Then she hits us with the grand finale."

Trouble turned to look at him. "Which would be?"

"Collapsing the rest of the dome." Artemis said with a small shrug like it was no big deal.

Holly shook her head. "There's no way, no way, she could pull that off."

Artemis raised a finger. "By her lonesome, yes, but with two..." Artemis trailed off thinking.

Trouble, Grub, Foaly, and Butler had already stepped into the escape shuttle-bay.

Butler looked nervous, something was wrong. "Come on Artemis, if she is planning anything we need to get out while we ca-"

Butler was cut off by a deep thoom and a blast of wind. A hunk of rubble crashed down and blocked off the escape bay. Artemis and Holly were thrown to the ground.

Artemis coughed as he pushed himself up onto his side. "That would be the Finale then."

Holly coughed next to him, waving the dust out of her face. "Hey, she didn't break the dome."

A chain of explosions shook the ground and they both glanced up as the dome cracked as a chain of explosions ran across it. Giant girders started crashing down to the ground and water started flowing in.

"I had to say it…"

Artemis put his hand to his headset. "Foaly."

"_Yea, I'm plugged into a terminal __here;__ she's blown pretty much every support beam. I'm guessing fifteen minutes till Atlantis collapses. That's on the good side."_

"The bad side?" Holly asked

"_Five minutes."_

Artemis nodded doing some calculations "Alright, all of you, get into the shuttles and eject; Holly and I will try and find another way out."

"_Artemis, I'm not leaving you, and Foaly says there's no other way out."_

"Butler-"

"_Actually, there's a way for them to survive. The new Atlantis was built with a heavily reinforced core that fairies could take cover in. Just in case the dome collapsed. The explosions should have __triggered__ the openings."_

Holly spoke up. "I never knew about this."

"_We didn't think we would need it. Its located in the direct center of Atlantis, buried in with the power center."_

Holly thought back to her tour here. "We can reach that in about five minutes if we run really fast."

Artemis nodded and the Holly gestured for him to follow and took off through the flooding area. Artemis started a stumbling run after her. The pair made quite a sight, Holly sprinting ahead in short bursts then turning back to urge Artemis along. They had to climb over, and under several collapsed beams as water poured down from above. As they got near the core area, another beam gave way and a flood of water crashed down on them.

Artemis was pushed to the ground and Holly had to drag him up and force him through the rushing torrent to a clear area. Artemis pointed to a small hatch. Holly nodded and pushed him towards it as another beam broke in two and collapsed. Water was rushing in from every way and Holly pushed Artemis through the hatch and she was pushed through by the water. She grabbed a valve as she was pushed by and turned it, closing a heavy door on the water. She turned to the gasping teen as he wiped water off his face.

"Come on, that won't hold the water for very long."

Artemis nodded and gestured for her to continue along. The maintenance shaft they were in was small and bare boned with just a metal grate for a floor and various pipes running out of the walls. They continued this way for a minute or two before they reached a junction.

"Should be this wa-"

Artemis rounded the corner after Holly. "What's wrong n-oh…"

There was nothing else to be said, their way was blocked by an emergency door that closed due to the flooding. Holly collapsed against the wall.

"That's it, there's no way we can reach the safe room now." She punched the door gently then glanced around trying to find one last way. There had to be one, they couldn't go out like this. Artemis recovered his breath for a moment before he started studying the wall.

"So, what's the plan Artemis?" Holly asked as she slid down the wall.

"Hmm, the plan I believe was to evacuate Atlantis, which we have done, as for escaping another part of the trap...I'll get back to you on that."

Holly blinked "Come on, you have to have something...right?"

Artemis glanced at her before he continued his study of the wall. "Given time, yes, but considering that time is something we distinctly lack...We're already past the five minute bad guess. So at best bet we've got another ten minutes to figure something out."

"So, you're pretty much running blind then?" Holly asked with a snort. "Great."

Artemis shot her a look before going back to studying a valve now. "Hmm, I wonder, could there be a back up to this tunnel, just in case something like this happened?"

Holly shrugged standing up again. "There might be."

Artemis glanced back at her. "I thought you did a patrol here."

"Yea, but mine never had me in the service areas. At least, not in great detail. We mainly focused on training to get people out."

"Do I count as one of them?"

Holly felt her mouth drop open slightly. "Really?"

Artemis smiled just a little bit. "Not as funny as I thought it would be."

Holly closed her mouth and blinked twice. "Wait, that was supposed to be funny?"

Artemis shook his head and grabbed the valve. "I wonder." He gave it a deft twist and the valve dropped out of the wall attached to a small panel. "Ah."

Holly found herself almost passing through time slowly, Artemis blinked and gave a small quirk to his mouth as he glanced into the empty duct. He turned to her and his hair waved with the water trapped in it. Holly felt her pulse pick up just a little bit, and she swallowed.

"Something wrong Holly?" Artemis asked as a groaning and popping noise sounded through out the tunnel. "You could try not to look so astonished." Artemis worked his way into the duct and Holly watched him squeeze in. She turned back as a rushing sound reached her ears.

She turned to see a wall of water rushing towards her. She gasped and dived into the duct. She reached out and grabbed the cover pulling it in and locking it in place. Moments later she heard a dull thud as the water hit the blast door. It started leaking around the hatch cover.

"Quickly Captain." Artemis called from down the duct. Holly nodded to herself and started crawling after Artemis. After a few moments of crawling the pair emerged inside a somewhat cramped room that was lit by a number of inset glowing red bars.

"Is this it?" Holly asked as she stepped out of the duct.

Artemis tapped the headset that had somehow managed to stay attached to his ear.

"Foaly, can you hear us?"

"_..."_

Holly glanced around "Guess he can't."

She walked further into the room and noticed a switch. Walking over to it she saw it was labeled 'LOCKDOWN'

"Artemis, I think this is it, come here."

Artemis walked over to her as groans started to echo down the hatch. He studied the switch for a moment before turning to face her.

"Your guess is as good as mine; shall we pull it and hope?"

Holly nodded and grabbed the switch, pulling it down.

A door dropped down behind them and suddenly their already small room became rather cramped. Holly looked around at their crammed settings, there was barely enough room for the two of them to sit with their knees together. There was a heavy thud as the more metal sealed them away from the elements outside.

Holly felt her breath pick up slightly.

"What if this doesn't work?" she asked Artemis.

"What do you mean?"

"What if we just signed our own death warrants, just sealed ourselves into this tiny coffin and said 'we give up'"

Holly's breaths were coming in slightly quicker now, and her pupils were a getting bigger. She began to glance around.

Artemis realized what was going on. Her claustrophobia was kicking in. "Captain."

Holly appeared to not hear him.

"Captain!" He tried again. Still no reaction from Holly.

"Holly!" He called out, his voice louder than normal in the small space.

Holly finally focused on him.

"Relax Holly, everything will be alright."

"How do you know that?" she demanded.

Artemis shrugged "Honestly, I don't." Holly looked like she was losing focus on him. He reached out and put a hand on top of hers. Her head snapped down to look at it.

"Holly." he said softly, she glanced up at him.

"I don't know if we'll make it out of this one, but what I do know is that for now. Everybody else is safe, and that's good enough for me."

Holly blinked rapidly.

"Now, Holly, I want you to look into my eyes."

Holly glanced into his mismatched eyes, and then she stopped. She just sat there blinking and staring at him. Even though one of the eyes was hers, the gaze behind it was his. She kept blinking.

"Now, breathe, slowly..."

Holly's breath evened out.

"Relax..."

Holly nodded slowly.

"Calm..."

Holly took one last deep breath. She opened her eyes and truly focused on Artemis again.

"Good, welcome back."

Holly smiled "Thanks Arty."

Artemis blinked and looked taken aback, if only for a moment.

"What's up?" she asked.

"Nothing, just...forget it."

Before Holly could pry deeper a mechanical voice spoke up.

"_This pod will be going into sleep mode, as will all occupants inside to help conserve power until rescue. You have 60 seconds."_

Holly glanced at Artemis. "60 seconds."

Artemis nodded. They sat across from each other and waited. The voice spoke up again.

"_30 seconds"_

"Arty?"

"Yes, Holly?"

"_15 Seconds"_

The lights in the pod started to grow dim and Holly moved over to lean on Artemis. Artemis stiffened for a moment before relaxing next to her.

"_10 seconds."_

Holly leaned her head next to Artemis's and looked up. Artemis locked eyes with her.

"_5__.__"_

They stayed that way.

"_3__.__"_

Holly lifted her head up slightly.

"_0…G__oodnight."_

**_Okay, so evil cliffy aside, theres a Poll on my profile page, I want everybody who reads this story, including those without accounts to vote on it. I'm honstly curious to what everybody thinks. Also to encoruge you to do it, it could drastically affect my updates._**


	9. Aftermath

_**Okay, wow, you must all hate me, and I'm sorry, I really am. I gave that evil cliff hanger last chapter then take almost half a year to update the story. Truth of the matter is, you my readers weren't the only ones I cliffed. What seemed like an excellent idea led to five different rewrites for this next chapter, and I didn't like any of them. I kinda smashed them all together and hoped for the best, and I'll be honest again, I'm pretty sure I broke character quite massively at least a few times. So I may even end up taking down this chapter who knows. Oh and its short, so short, and I hate myself for that, I wanted to give you a longer chapter, but I'm still trying to figure out what comes next.**_

* * *

_**- Artemis Fowl: PP - Chapter 9: Aftermath - Emile the Watcher - Standard Disclaimers can be applied here -**_

* * *

Butler was stressed...really stressed. Artemis had said they would find another way out, but it had taken Foaly an hour to even find out if one of the shock pods had launched. Then to make matters worse, Foaly had proceeded to tell him that the pods were capable of keeping its occupants alive for a good six hours. Which he followed up with the fact that was of course two small fairies and that two humans would use up much faster, so maybe more like four hours, give or take.

That had been two hours ago...

Now they were down to the last hour of air left in the pods scrubbers. Butler was getting visibly tensed with every passing minute. He was crouched in Foaly's Op-Booth, trying hard not to knock things over and not get in Foaly's way, while trying to see everything the centaur was doing.

Forty minutes, maybe, to go and still nothing...

"Got Them!" Foaly crowed as he locked in on the signal he had been trying to track.

Butler was instantly as close to Foaly as he could get. "Are you sure?"

Foaly snorted "Of course I'm sure."

Butler growled in his throat.

Foaly gulped "But you know what, let me double check."

Butler nodded "Good idea."

A quick flash of key strokes later and Foaly called one of the ships out looking for the shock pod. "Captain, I've got a lock on the Pod, sending you the coordinates now."

The elf on screen nodded and closed the connection heading off to get the pod.

"Now they just need to hurry to a port."

Butler glanced down at Foaly "Why's that?"

Foaly looked a little nervous. "Well..."

"Foaly..."

"The Pods can only be opened in a shuttle port, and the nearest one since Atlantis was destroyed is..."

"...Here..."

"Yea..."

Butler glanced back at the screen. "You better call that Elf back and let me impress on him the importance of his speed."

"Actually, let's just go the shuttle port and wait for him." Foaly said as he walked towards the exit of the Op-Booth.

"Foaly!"

"Sorry Butler can't hear you."

Butler grumbled deep in his throat about how many recipes he had for horse before following Foaly down to the shuttle port.

One very stressed half-hour later the ship blasted through the airlocks and hovered over an area of the port. A slightly mangled and very beat up dark pod hanging below it. The pod dropped to the ground with a loud clang that echoed around the shuttle port and Butler made a note to strangle the pilot when he saw him.

Foaly galloped over with a portable computer. He reached the pod and quickly pulled a cord out of his shirt pocket and connect the computer to the port. His fingers started flying across the keyboard and after only another extremely long, from Butlers point of view, forty-five seconds later, the pod hissed and a panel popped out.

It took another five damn seconds before the pod opened fully and Butler could see inside.

"Empty!" He cried out in shock.

Foaly whipped his head around to look at Butler. "It can't be..." He turned to look into the pod. "...empty..."

Butler was stunned, then angry, he turned to Foaly. "Where are they?" He demanded, "How did you lose them!"

"I don't get it, they should be here, this is the only Pod that was activated."

"Then where are they?"

Foaly looked up lost at Butler. "I don't know...I honestly don't know."

* * *

?

* * *

As the lights went dark Holly had the briefest moment of touching his lips before suddenly they were pulled away, along with the rest of his body. Holly blinked and floundered around in the darkness, she closed her eyes, trying to get a grip on anything. She opened her eyes at the sensation of falling and woke up.

She was a fairy again, and she was in Haven, she blinked and looked around. She was slumped over in a chair inside one of the stores on the plaza. Her back was killing her for sleeping in the chair and she stretched as her magic kicked in. Had it all been a dream, a horrible nightmare, her turning human? Atlantis being destroyed? She stood up and Holly almost sighed in relief, then that meant the feelings for Artemis were just a dream to, good, cause she shouldn't be loving a mud-man.

Holly walked out the doors and looked around, wondering why the place was empty, was it that late?

She heard a laugh and turned around to see Opal, both of the Opal's standing in the plaza outside Spuds.

"Look who finally awoke Opal, I think our stun blast was too powerful."

But what grabbed Holly's attention was the fact that one of the Opals had a Neutrino trained on Artemis who looked as if he was thinking furiously while trying to figure a way out. Holly made a move to help out when the other Opal turned to her and pulled a Neutrino on Holly as well. Before she could make a move she was tagged with a low level blast that sent her to her knees, pain coating every inch of her body.

As she narrowed her eyes against the pain she heard one of the Opals call out. "Don't lose consciousness again Short! The best part is yet to come."

At these words the other Opal pulled a small black tube out of her pocket and flicked up a cap, revealing a glowing red button. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going to happen next. The button was pressed and Holly cupped her hands over her ears as a series of massive explosions tore up the city around her. The noise was intense, but she also couldn't bear the thought of all the fairies that had just been killed for these twisted pixies revenge.

With that thought, a cold hate flowed over her, and sparks suddenly lept out of her being, healing the left over pain from the Neutrino blast. She stood up tall and glared at the Opals, she took a step forward and the Opal with the gun trained on Artemis smiled.

"Oops." Was all she said, her finger tightening on the trigger.

Holly's gaze was drawn to Artemis who was looking at her with nothing but peace on his face.

Then the beam pierced right through his upper chest and his face contorted in pain. The Opals vanished into a shield and Holly ran forward to Artemis, already calling up sparks on her fingers. She slid to a stop next to Artemis as he fell backwards his face still contorted into pain. Holly scanned him, right there, a neat little laser hole, there was no blood as it seemed the laser sealed its own wound. The only issue was the hole now burned clearly through him, and his right lung.

"Hang on Artemis I got you." Holly felt tears in her eyes as she went to heal her dieing friend.

Artemis tried to speak, but all that came out was a gurgling noise, along with a wheezing breath. His lung was collapsing...quickly...

Holly blinked the tears out of her eyes as she put both her hands over the hole and whispered. "Heal."

The blue sparks cascaded off her body and blasted down onto the slightly shaking form of Artemis. Holly felt relived for a moment until the sparks started bouncing off and popping like little fireworks. Holly shook her head as she pushed harder to heal her friend. "No, No, No, NoNoNoNo." She started muttering as she felt her magic start to wane. She closed her eyes and pushed as hard as she could until every last spark she had was gone. Holly took a breath and opened her eyes.

The wound was still there.

Holly felt panic start to well up inside of her, she squashed it though as she tried to think of another way to save Artemis.

She started speaking to him "It, it didn't work, why didn't it work, it should have worked. I'll try to re inflate the lung...I think I remember how..."

She stopped what she was doing when Artemis reached up weakly and put his hand over hers. She looked into his eyes and saw peace. His face was relaxed and his forehead wasn't scrunched up in thought, in fact there was a small smile playing around the corner of his lips as he wheezed while trying to draw in air.

He coughed several times and surprised Holly when he managed to get out a word.

"...peace..." he wheezed as he struggled to bring his other hand on top of the one he had already placed over her hands.

Holly smiled through the tears "Yes, Artemis, you'll be at peace..."

_I wont. _

Artemis still had that smile playing on his lips. It fell off as he had another coughing bout, but was right back when he managed to wheeze out another word. "...love..." Holly blinked some more tears out her eyes and wiped her face. She didn't say anything except to point at herself.

Artemis blinked and then his eyelids started to flicker, his head slowly starting to drop off to the right. Holly leaned close as he opened his mouth one last time and got his last word out, determined to get it before death took him.

"...yo...u..." his voice faded and his eyelids stopped moving halfway down, a few moments later his chest stopped heaving and Holly felt something rip inside of her.

She sat bolt up right gasping and blinking away tears out of her eyes. Holly shook her head and rubbed her palms over her eyes, trying to block her tears and clear her mind of the dream. She managed to recover her breath and looked down at her hands.

_Yea, still human..._

Holly suddenly straightened up and looked around her, she was in a small white room, sitting on a cot. She stood up and walked around the room, wondering where the door was. Her question was answered when after her fifth lap around the room, the room started shaking and the walls started moving down. It didn't take her long to realize, her room, was really an elevator and she was now being sent up.

As she reached the top of the shaft the walls vanished as her room settled level with where ever she was. She glanced around and noticed Artemis was standing still in a room identical to hers, his back was to her and he seemed to be looking around at the night sky above them.

"Curious." He said aloud.

Holly took a step and the echoing noise had Artemis turn around to see what was behind him.

"Ah, Holly, I see you've awoken."

Holly was looking up at the night sky as well. "How did you know I was asleep?" she asked as she came up next to him.

"I awoke approximately forty minutes ago, and a voice told me that I would be summoned when you awoke as well." He glanced around him at his 'room' "I must deduce that since the room turned out to be an elevator that this is the 'summons' and you had just woken up."

"Okay...any idea where we are?"

Artemis glanced back up at the night sky. "Somewhere in Hawaii perhaps, I haven't looked at a star chart recently, but I believe that" He pointed up at the Big Dipper "Is supposed to be nicely seen from Hawaii at this time of year."

He turned his gaze back to Holly "Of course I could be wrong."

Holly snorted "I highly doubt that. Alright, next question Mr. Genius, why are we in Hawaii?"

Artemis blinked and looked around again. "Well, obviously our pod was found by somebody other then Butler and Foaly, whoever 'they' are has brought us here. I can guess at who is behind this, but I would rather be wrong."

Holly thought about it "Opals, right?"

Artemis nodded.

They both covered their eyes as a clicking noise turned on extremely bright lights focused on them. As Holly peaked through her fingers to see through the glare she realized she was in some sort of stadium. The stadium was small as their wasn't much room aside from their elevator rooms, which had sunk back into the ground when the lights turned on, leaving the smooth expanse of white unmarked. When the wall reached up over their heads Holly could see a few rows of seats stacked around them and sitting on a few of them were two people.

"Opals." Holly growled out, her eyes adjusting to the sudden brightness and glaring at the two of them.

"Oh how clever of you Holly, yes it is indeed us." The Opal Fairy responded.

"The 'Opals' as you so quaintly put it" Finished Opal Child.

Opal Fairy spoke up again "Tell me, what led you to that brilliant deduction, was it that fact that we were sitting here, watching you?"

Opal Child laughed "Or was that too hard, and that's why you positively growled our name, because your brain was so overcome with thought, you couldn't even talk properly."

Holly just barred her teeth a little bit and said nothing.

Opal Child pointed "Oh look Opal, I do believe she plans on fighting us."

Opal Fairy rubbed a finger across her chin "Or perhaps she is just having stomach pains."

Artemis chose that moment to speak up. "I hate to intrude on this...lovely...banter that you two have going on with yourselves. But may I ask why you haven't attempted to kill us yet?" The corner of Artemis's mouth ticked up "Or is this another thing with Trolls?"

Opal Child lost her smile "You're lucky you got out of there Artemis, you won't be so lucky this time."

Artemis crossed his arms "Oh really, and why is that?"

Opal Fairy pulled out a gun from behind her "Because, we just wanted you to know that we could have had you all to ourselves. But we're going to send you back to your friends instead." She pulled the trigger twice and Artemis jerked as the dart punctured his chest. He grabbed it and pulled it out staring at the empty syringe.

Holly also got hit with a dart and had her vision start to swim in front of her. "Potent." she mumbled before falling face first onto the ground.

Artemis lasted a bit longer, falling to his knees first as blackness ate away at the edge of his vision. He manged to get out one word. "What?" Then he was gone as well.

* * *

**"_...We shall be watching..."_**

* * *

Butler was at this point sick with worry, the pod had been empty and Artemis and Holly had been missing for almost three days now. Foaly had been trying to track them down, going over data to figure out who could have accessed the pod. Which supposedly was only supposed to be possible at the Haven shuttle port.

Butler had yet to call back to Fowl Manor, and his phone had started ringing almost non-stop with calls from Mrs. Fowl, it got to the point that Butler just set the phone to send her calls straight to voice mail to avoid telling her that he had lost her son.

Butler rented a room at a near by hotel to the Tara shuttle port, he had spent the time since Foaly had sent him to the surface, combing the internet for information on Artemis, just in case. He was just getting ready to call Foaly and ask if he had any luck when his phone started ringing. He pulled it out and was surprised to see Artemis's number on the screen. He quickly opened the connection.

"Artemis?" He demanded

"...Butler, not so loud please...I have a rather large migraine."

Butler blinked as Artemis's voice reached his ears "Artemis I will apologize later, but for now, where the hell have you been?"

Artemis's sigh caused some static on Butler's end. "Butler, please, you will get the full story as I know it, but first please, can you make your way to the Tara shuttle port? Holly and I are about a half a half a kilometer out."

"You're back in Ireland? How?"

"...Butler, Please, I will explain, but first meet me and Holly at Tara."

"Artemis..." Butler let his voice trail off.

"...Butler...please..."

Butler sighed and swore to himself that he was never leaving the manor again. "Very Well Artemis, I will be there in a few minutes."

"Very well Butler, we shall be near by."

"Tell Holly to call Foaly so he can stop worrying himself into the floor over her. I think his wife is starting to get jealous."

Artemis chuckled softly "Very well, Old friend, I shall tell her."

Artemis closed his hand and leaned back into the grassy hill with Holly. Normally Artemis wasn't one to just sit around in the dirt, but he was going to make an exception today, considering that neither he nor Holly could stand up straight. Besides, after all the wear and tear that his clothes had been through at Atlantis, it didn't really matter if they were going to get much dirtier, he was just going to throw them out.

Besides him Holly was having another moment in the sun, a smile on her face while she just absorbed its rays.

"Holly?"

"..Hmm?.."

Artemis raised an eyebrow at her oh so relaxed response then decided that now was not the time to discuss why the Opals had let them go. Perhaps Butler would have some insight on that, but since he had already said her name he might as well ask the other question on his mind,

"Holly, in the pod, just before the gas knocked us out, did you...?" Artemis trailed off, for some reason unable to finish the question.

Holly's smile disappeared, she had forgotten about that, although she wasn't quite sure how. She turned to face her friend "What?"

Artemis said nothing for a moment "I guess...never mind, my brain must have been playing tricks on me."

Holly was very satisfied with that answer. Maybe he would put it down to his mind playing tricks on him, and they could lock it in the past where it belonged, with the other kiss they shared. Holly however couldn't help herself when the next thought shot through her head.

"_Did he sound, wishful? Like he hadn't imagined it?"_

Holly shook her head, with how he had freaked out with the last kiss, she seriously doubted that he would be hopeful for another one. After a bit Artemis stood up and when his legs didn't wobble beneath him, he held a hand out to Holly who raised an eyebrow at him before standing up on her own. "Like you could pull me up anyway with those scrawny arms."

Artemis shrugged "It was the gentlemen thing to do." Artemis paused and a small grin poked at the corner of his mouth.

Holly eyed him with suspicion, "What?"

Artemis turned away from her "Well, I have been forced into working on my physical build by Butler, and while I may not be as strong as you, I could have easily helped you to your feet." He shot a glance at her before turning back to the sun. "So by your statement, you have just insulted yourself by referring to yourself as being overweight."

Holly blinked, then she reached out and punched Artemis on the shoulder. Artemis stumbled away slightly and winced rubbing at his shoulder "Ow, what was that for?" he asked while glaring at Holly.

Holly smiled "That was for calling my fat, even it was in a roundabout way." Holly turned to face the sun as well "Besides, you're the smart one, you should know that your never supposed to call a woman fat."

Artemis resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Holly, instead he turned and faced the direction o f the hidden shuttle-port. "Well, we still have a bit of walk ahead, shall we get started?"

Holly nodded and took the leader with a soldiers stride, something that covered ground without her over exerting. This left Artemis to struggle to keep up with her, forcing her to slow down several times. At one point Holly slowed and waited until Artemis fully caught up with her, she watched him for a moment before Artemis raised an eyebrow at her. "Yes?"

Holly paused a bit "Why do you think they did it?"

Artemis gestured for her to continue walking and she kept a slow stride as he walked along side of her. "You are referring to the Opals letting us go, correct?"

Holly nodded her head, and Artemis glanced ahead at their path. "I can only guess at his point, and that frustrates me. If anything us waking up in one piece if a surprise by itself. I fully expect that the Opals have at least planted something on us, or...in...us. But if could be so much more simpler then that."

Holly glanced at him "Sorry still trying to get that 'in' comment out of my head." she paused a moment "What do you mean by simpler?"

Artemis glanced at her before he spoke up "Fear. Uncertainty. Distraction. Psychological. Any of those four words could be used." Before Holly could ask what he meant, Artemis continued "Fear in the fact that perhaps they did something to us while we were rendered unconscious. Uncertainty in that they abducted us to throw us off our game. Distraction, focusing us on trying to figure out the why and not paying attention to anything else. Lastly Psychological, just to leave us wondering, if they could have killed us or abducted us at any time, why did they not."

Holly walked in silence for a moment while she mulled over his words. "Those all sound kinda similar."

Artemis nodded "In essence they are, but there are a number of sub factors that dived each section up."

Holly watched him as they walked "Such as?"

Artemis shrugged "Such as that with fear we could waste precious time trying to figure out what they _might _have done to us instead of stopping them. Uncertainty distracting us so that we miss the one ever important clue. Distraction focusing on finding their base in Hawaii while they operate from a different location altogether. Psychological with just putting us off our game to a degree that allows them the upper hand in our next meeting."

Holly nodded as they continued walking. "So which one do you think it is?"

Artemis smiled just a bit "Ah now that's the crux of it, is it not? I'm willing to put it down as Psychological, something overly simple to I believe the term is 'mess with' our heads. But then I still plan on doing some sort of scan to see if there is anything foreign on me, but I'm also running the risk of choosing that and being wrong, which leaves the fear with the Opals having an ace up their sleeves when we next meet."

"Ah" Holly said softly "I see your point."

Artemis glanced at her "Indeed." he said just as softly.

Holly glanced back at him "Do you have a plan then?"

Artemis returned her gaze with a steely version of his own "Not of yet Holly, but when more of the stage comes to light, believe me, I will, of that I have no doubt."

Holly nodded and turned her gaze back towards the shuttle port and a large man running towards them "That I'm sure of as well."

* * *

_**Okay again, short, and I'm sorry, but some update is better then none, right? Anyway, leave me your thoughts on this chapter please. I'm really REALLY unsure about it, so some thoughts with that review button please.**_

_**Alright I think that's, except for a thank you to those who voted on my last poll, I looked at the responses and saw what people favored, even though it doesn't seem to have affected this story much. Hopefully my writers block will piss off and let me continue working no?**_

_**Until the next chapter,**_

_**Peace,**_

_**-Emile**_


	10. Shockwaves

_**-Stumbles through a cluttered room and lands heavily on a his chair. Blows dust off his keyboard.- Well, I'm sure you all hate me, a lot, I don't blame you, I really don't. My last upload I was all about how I was working through my writers block and I was going to get you anther chapter soonish and another freaking half a year later I finally update? I would hate myself too. Anyway, any hate aside, I'll just throw you right into it, although you may want to read the blurb I have at the end. Oh and don't be surprised if I broke character a crap load, I'm pretty sure I've lost touch with most of them by now, so I'm sorry if that ruins the chapter for ya.**_

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_****__**- Artemis Fowl: PP - Chapter 10: Shockwaves - Emile the Watcher - Seriously I don't own Artemis, Fowl, and no manner of wishing or crazy invention will change that. Ever...damn it. -**_

* * *

After a thorough field inspection of both Artemis and Holly, Butler was satisfied enough to let them off with a promise of a stern talking too about safety later. He directed that last bit at Holly, saying that theirs was going to take place in the Dojo.

Holly winced at that part.

While leading the pair back towards the car, Butler kept his head on swivel, just in case the Opals decided to launch an attack here. It was during one of these scans that he first noticed the odd behaviors.

He saw it in Holly first, at the start he thought that her head swivels were similar to his, but her head only ever turned towards Artemis. Or is she looked away, it was only for a few moments. Butler said nothing at her behavior but he noticed that Artemis changed his gait slightly and before they were back to the car there was a good deal of space between the two.

When they reached the car, Butler opened the door for them and Artemis stepped aside to let Holly enter first. When Artemis entered he sat down on the other side of the car from Holly and turned his attention to the window outside.

The ride back to Fowl Manor was almost surreal for the bodyguard. It wasn't uncommon for Artemis to sink into silence while he thought, but Holly usually had some question for him, or something to point out to Butler. Never just, silence.

When they reached the manor, The pair exited in silence as well and Holly made for the Dojo while Artemis made for his room.

Butler glanced between the pathways that the two of them took before deciding that Holly might be the easier one to try and get information out of. With that thought in mind he made a brief stop in the security room to check the logs and make sure there was no trouble, before making his way down to the Dojo.

When he entered, he found Holly hard at work beating on a punching bag that Artemis had touched once. After almost dislocating his fingers, he informed Butler that punching a bag of sand was a trivial practice and not likely to help him in anyway. Except perhaps to send him to the doctors with a injured hand.

Butler took a moment to hang back in the doorway and study her. Although he knew much better, due to her...mutation...she could pass for a a young adult Artemis's age. She had pulled her hair back into a tight pony tail, and was currently beating on the punching bag like it had insulted her mentor.

Holly finished delivering a series of fierce punches to the bag and finished her set with a roundhouse kick. As the bag swung back, Holly stepped clear of the return swing and stared at the wall, a light bit of sweat just starting to show on her. "Well, are you going to say anything or just stand there all day?" She glanced over at him "Or are you just letting me wear myself out before our 'conversation'"

Butler walked into the Dojo, his hand on his chin as if he was thinking hard. "Now while that was my original plan, I might be willing to forgo that if you tell me what happened down there."

Holly didn't say anything for a moment "After the traps went off and we were separated, the two of us ran through the flooding city. We found the service areas, and that led us to the pods. While we were sealed in the pods,a computer told us that we would be put to sleep to reduce our oxygen use. Next thing I knew, I woke up in a white room. Turns out that the Opals had captured us and just wanted to taunt to us that they pretty much destroyed Atlantis and that they could have gotten to us at anytime. They tagged us with some darts and when I woke up, Artemis and I were on the side of a hill not far from Tara." Holly moved back to the bag that was still swinging back and forth and grabbed it "Artemis called you and you know the rest."

Butler nodded a few times and waited a moment more before he spoke up "That's not what I meant."

Holly looked at him for a moment before she turned back to the punching bag "I don't know what you mean."

Butler snorted softly "Don't roll out that over used line. You know exactly what I'm talking about." Butler waited a few more moments for holly to say something "Alright fine, before we went down to Atlantis, you and Artemis were at least taking to each other, and now, you both were silent in the card ride and immediately tried to get as far away from each other as possible. Care to explain that?"

Holly took a step back and grinned at Butler "I think you're getting paranoid in your old age Butler, you're seeing things."

Butler just raised an eyebrow "One, don't call me old, and two, if I'm so wrong, go upstairs and talk to Artemis right now."

Holly's grin fell off her face as soon as she realized Butler wasn't joking. It would almost be worth any fight they had at this point. To be honest, she wasn't sure why she hadn't wanted to be around Artemis, the episode in the Pod non withstanding.

Giving a big theatrical sigh, Holly started dragging her feet past Butler "Fine if it'll make you feel better, I'll go and talk to Artemis." she picked up the pace once she was past Butler and turned to face him before she backed through the doorway "But don't think this means that you've won or anything."

Butler just shook his head and turned to the punching bag "I've always win Holly." he said to himself as he moved forward to work off some stress.

* * *

**_-The Room of Artemis Fowl II-_**

* * *

Artemis was hard at work on his laptop, or at least he was trying to. Every time he attempted to work through one of his ideas for curing Holly's condition something always distracted him. After a few minutes Artemis decided to try and clear his head by adding to his journal.

"_After being called to Atlantis to help with the Opal's attack, and helping evacuate the fairy population, the Opal's trigger a large number of bombs along the dome. It is my understanding that Atlantis has completely collapsed, and now Haven is now over crowded due to the refugee influx._

_I was trapped with Holly inside the collapsing dome, and we worked our way to some reinforced pods to survive the collapse. Once we were inside, a voice informed us that we were going to be knocked out to conserve power. I fell asleep expecting to wake up to Butler's worried face._

_Much to my surprise though I woke up in a white room, it was later revealed the the Opal's had captured us before our friends. What surprised me more however was the fact that the Opal's simply wanted to inform us that they could get to Holly and I at any time. They knocked us out again and we awoke on a hill just outside of the Tara shuttle port."_

Artemis paused with his fingers on his keyboard., when he resumed it was at a much slower pace then before.

"_I feel as if I can't leave this out, not of my own Journal anyway. During the countdown Holly began acting...strange. She moved closer and leaned her head on my shoulder, I felt Hormones start to rush around instantly at this, I turned to look at her and found that I couldn't say anything, which is a rarity enough for me, but I couldn't break the eye contact."_

Artemis paused again and rubbed as his temple with his fingers, as if trying to forget what was in his head. When he put his fingers to the keyboard again, he still hesitated before typing.

"_I want to say that whatever mixture of gasses the People used to knock me out are causing me to remember things that didn't happen. But...I am under the impression that Holly kissed me in the pod. I know she has done this once before, but something was different this time. My last thought before I blacked out was of the brief touch of her lips upon mine._

_Every time I think about this I feel something inside of me, and it has proved most distracting. I even tried to distance myself from Holly on the car ride back to the Manor. Now that I have returned to my laptop and am trying to resume work on my projects before being called to Atlantis, I find my thoughts constantly being pulled back to the one moment._

There was a knock on the door and Artemis turned his attention to it briefly for one moment.

"_For now, I believe the only explanation for this is hormones, I shall have to look into it at a later date."_

Artemis saved and closed the file, encrypting it before he opened what he had been working on before. The person on the other side of the door knocked again and Artemis got up from his chair to answer it.

Holly knocked a third time on Artemis's door before shrugging her shoulders. "Guess hes not in here" she muttered to herself before turning around and heading back towards the Dojo. She had only gotten about halfway down the hall when the door slid open behind her and Artemis stepped out. When he glanced down and saw her walking away Artemis called out.

"Holly."

Holly stopped and cursed her luck before turning around to face Artemis. "So you were in there, how come you didn't say anything, I thought you had wondered away to another part of the Manor."

Artemis raised an eyebrow "Hello to you too Holly, I didn't realize I was required to call out at the knock, I shall have to amend my actions for next time. Now, is there something you needed?"

Holly said nothing for a moment, glancing back over her shoulder and wondering it Butler would buy the 'did not answer' excuse.

"Holly?" Artemis asked taking a step forward.

Holly sighed inwardly before turning back to face Artemis "I just wanted to talk."

Artemis nodded "About what?"

In response Holly shrugged her shoulders "Uh, anything I guess. Butler pretty much booted me out of the Dojo until I came and talked to you."

Artemis turned back towards his door "Interesting, I thought for sure that he implied your talk would be in the form of a sparring match. Oh well, come on in, I have things I need to work on, but if anything comes to mind, don't hesitate to ask." With that, Artemis walked into his room, Holly following.

Holly glanced behind her as the door closed, Artemis moved over to his desk and sat down in front of his computer, his focus on the screen as he resumed work on whatever his current project was. She hoped it was a cure for her condition, but knowing Artemis it could be something totally different, or he could be working on the cure as well and just dividing his attention.

Holly looked around for another seat and was dismayed to find that Artemis's bed was the only other option. Taking a few short strides she rested on the corner of the bed. She sat in silence for a few minutes, well silence except for the clicking of keys on Artemis's keyboard.

Eventually she spoke up. "What are you working on."

Artemis didn't even pause in the beat of his keys "You're cure. I am also hacking into Havens security network, as well as the Atlantis backs up to try and figure out how Opal was able to get her bombs in."

Holly nodded "Does Foaly know your hacking?"

Artemis snorted gently "If he does not, I would be disappointed in him. I always leave him little clue though to let him know that I got through his latest security upgrades."

Holly leaned back further on the bed. "Oh really, and what type of clues do you leave behind?"

Artemis felt his mouth curve up slightly "Sometimes its an image I pull off of the internet, usually though I just rename a few of his files, although once I redirected all of his file targets so every time he tried to open something it took him to a different folder."

Holly laughed gently "I remember him complaining about something like that once. He was rather upset, since it happened during a briefing."

Artemis paused for a moment to glance over at Holly "Oh, what happened?"

Holly grinned and pushed herself up onto her elbows to look at Artemis "Well most of the senior officers found out that Caballine sends Foaly the most interesting stuff while hes at work."

Artemis had turned back to his keyboard, but had stopped typing as Holly fell back on his bed laughing softly again. "Oh, really, I hope I didn't cause to much harm."

Holly was still laughing "Nah, no harm, although Foaly did tie in a few curse words with your name for a straight week. There were also a _lot _of security upgrades the next month too."

Artemis let another little smile play about on his face "Hmm, I can't image why."

Artemis continued working as Holly finished chuckling, apparently the photos had been really funny. When she finally calmed down it was only a few moments before she spoke up again. "So did you find anything out yet?"

Artemis shook his head gently "As for how Opal manged to get the bombs in, no. But I did find out how she grabbed us from the pod."

Holly pushed herself up again "How?"

Artemis turned in his chair to face her "Opal has apparently helped design some of the security software for Atlantis a few decades back. From what I can gather, she left her self a back door, I would like to imagine that she left it for noble purposes but most likely she was planning on attacking Atlantis at some point. Even back then."

Holly nodded her head "Makes sense, although" Holly raised a finger "The only thing is how did it get left there in the first place, after she tried to take over with the Goblin thing, Foaly took apart all of our security and rebuilt it from scratch, Atlantis included"

Artemis thought about it for a moment. "Did he replace all the hardware _and _software from Atlantis?"

Holly thought about it for a moment "You know, now that I think about it, there were some budget cuts and some stuff had to be reused. Foaly fought it, but in the end the Council and budget won out." Holly laid back down, she was getting tired.

Artemis turned his attention back to his computer. "I'm sure Foaly will love to find this out. I imagine him trying to squeeze more ingots into his budget."

Holly gave a soft huff "Yea, probably not for a few decades at least though. I don't see him turning to the council tomorrow and saying 'Remember Atlantis collapsing? All that could have been avoided if you had just given me the budget I needed back then.' At least I hope he doesn't do that. Little bit to tactless, even for Foaly." Holly's eyelids started sliding down, demanding that she take a nap. She fought it, but in the end, she lost and felt herself drift off to sleep.

It was some time before Artemis noticed Holly had fallen asleep on his bed. When he did finally notice it was only after calling out her name a few times to no response. After realizing it, he glanced outside at the night and had to guess that she had been asleep for at least two hours. Artemis turned fully about in his chair, and just stared at her, as she slept.

He still wasn't quite sure why he was doing this, when a soft beep from his door alerted him to its unlocking. He quickly turned back to his computer and resumed what he was working on. When the door fully opened it was to Butlers shaved head. Artemis raised a finger to his lips and pointed to Holly's form on his bed. Butler raised an eyebrow at Artemis before backing out of the room. Artemis waited a few moments, before he finished what he was working on and saved his work. He stood up from the chair and worked the kinks out of his back with a few quick stretches before he headed to the door.

He opened it gently so as not to wake Holly and closed it behind him. As he turned out into the hall he noticed Butler was standing in position across from the door. As Artemis turned to walk down the hall, Butler fell into step beside him.

"How long has she been asleep?" Butler asked rather suddenly.

Artemis glanced up at his friend "About two hours."

Butler made a grunt in his throat "Ah and here I was hoping that you two had just decided to have a big long discussion."

Artemis frowned slightly "What type of discussion would we be having for two or more hours?"

Butler shook his head gently "One day you will understand Artemis."

Artemis stopped and turned to face Butler "There is a great deal I understand old friend, as you well know. But if you feel my knowledge is lacking at some point, do feel free to expand it."

Butler sighed "Artemis I would love to, but its not something you teach, you just kind of have to...pick it up, as you go."

Artemis turned back to his goal with a tsk sound and Butler the two of them started walking again.

Eventually they wound up in the Kitchen, and Butler set about making them a late dinner. After the food was prepared and eaten, the two of them were sitting at the counter and Artemis found himself wishing Holly was awake.

"Butler," he asked suddenly, catching the bodyguards attention "Is it normal for me to be imagining things?"

Butler took a drink of his coffee "That depends, what are you imagining?"

Artemis said nothing for a moment "Nothing serious mind you, its just that, when Holly and I were in the crash pod, a computer told us that we would be put to sleep to conserve air. As the gas knocked me out, I thought..."

Artemis trialled off and Butler found himself leaning slightly on the table. "Yes Artemis?"

Artemis glanced down into his own cup "I know it couldn't have happened, but I think that Holly kissed me."

Butler leaned back into his seat, the urge to grin fighting for control of his face. "Well, its understandable actually."

Artemis looked up at Butler "How so?"

Butler leaned back onto the table "Well, as I'm sure you've noticed, and as we have discussed before, Holly has changed quite a bit."

Artemis nodded "Yes of course."

Butler raised an eyebrow "What makes you think that the changes were only on the outside? For all intents and purposes Holly is now a female who looks to be about your age. Its entirely possible that in the moment, she had her own body working against her, and she decided to kiss you."

Artemis stared back into his cup, as his mind worked through the possibilities "So, you're saying that Holly is...attracted, to me?"

Butler shrugged "She could be, the Fowl men have always been quite the ladies men. Just ask your father one day, when he wasn't busy running a criminal aspect of his life, he apparently was quite the lady killer." Butler took a drink of his coffee "When I was standing guard over you, your dad was actually quite, eh, loose, in his tongue, giddy over your birth I would say. He spent more then a few nights informing me about how I would have to make sure only the proper girls got to date you when you got older, no matter how many heart I had to break, or limbs."

Artemis said nothing for a few minutes, then a smile played at the corner of his mouth. "Some part of me thinks I would like that."

Artemis looked up at Butler to see that the bodyguard had turned his gaze to something behind Artemis. Artemis turned about in his stool to face the doorway. He felt his heart skip a beat and he swallowed hard. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. HE closed it again and tried once more.

"Holly..."

* * *

**-_Earlier-_**

* * *

Holly awoke some time later, drowsy and trying to remember where she fell asleep and what woke her up. She glanced around the room and her mind finally plugged itself back into the rest of her body. She was in Artemis's room and Artemis himself was nowhere in sight. Holly had a thought and she spun around on the bed.

No, he wasn't there, and a quick glance at his bathroom with its open door, confirmed that he wasn't in there either. Holly glanced down as her stomach rumbled and she realized what had woke her. Deciding that the kitchen was to be her next destination. Holly headed for the door and let herself out of the room. Making sure the door clicked close Holly worked her through the house towards the kitchen.

She had just reached the hallway and was about to turn the corner into the kitchen when voices reached her ears.

"_-kissed me."_

Holly stopped in her tracks, and against her better judgment, found herself eavesdropping on another conversation between Butler and Artemis. She spared a quick thought to wonder when she picked up this rude little habit, but then she was distracted by the conversation from the kitchen.

She listened in as Butler told her how the Fowl men were lady killers and she had to admit that Artemis had grown a lot since they had met, and it was hard to deny the claim. The kitchen went silent for a few minutes and Holly was getting ready to move out of the way when she heard Artemis speak up softly.

Holly blinked. He knew, he _knew._ Of course he knew, why did she act otherwise? Holly wanted to beat her fist on her forehead. She didn't even know why she had kissed him in the first place. Maybe there was something to what Butler had been saying before and that her body had been working against her. If that was true, she needed to either get cured, or get out of Fowl Manor as soon as possible.

Making up her mind to try and act like she hadn't overheard anything, again, and also to convince Artemis to put her up in a hotel, or get that cure figured out. Holly stepped around the corner.

Butler's eyes raised up to her instantly, studying her, most likely trying to guess how much she had heard. Artemis's back was to her, but she saw his head rise to look at Butlers, then he turned around in his seat.

In the split second that she studied his face, she saw his eyes widen slightly and his nostrils flared, just a bit. She also noticed him swallow rather hard. Three things that Artemis Fowl the second, did _not _do. When he opened his mouth to speak, nothing came out for a moment. When he got his mouth working again, he said only one word.

"Holly..."

* * *

_**Right well, again, I'm sure I blew charterer way to much in this chapter, if you agree, yell at me in a review, if you don't, yay! Still leave a review though.**_

_**Right-o, so I apologize for this thing taking so blasted long to update, I really do, but I have a reason. Writers block, and I figured out what was causing it. You see, sometime during the Atlantis Ho! Chapter, I decided that I didn't like what I had originally planned out for the end of this story. But I kept writing anyway, even though my heart wasn't fully into it. This eventually lead to the writers block. Guess if my hearts not in it, I don't write. **_

_**Anyway, I sat down about a week ago and opened the file for this fiction, I started reading through it and tried to write some more, and when I realized that I no longer wanted to finish the story I went about figuring out why. Simply put, my original ending was this stupid contrived thing that I was going to use to drive a second story.**_

_**It was the huge thing about how the Opals basically won, everything was falling apart, and to save Holly's life, Artemis had built a device that was going to push her into another reality. One where there would be a chance for her to live, and then Artemis was going to become this corporal ghost thing that could see the entire time line and all the different realities and how eventually he would contact Holly and they would spend the story trying to get him into her reality, because in her Artemis died in a bomb blast, and she had all these memories that never happened and...**_

_**You can see how complicated it was getting, and honestly, I think it could no longer have fit in any bit of Artemis Fowl Fiction, because I don't think I could have pulled it off.**_

_**So anyway, now, I'm working on a new ending, and I already have ideas for the next chapter, so I really, really, REALLY, hope it won't take me another half a sodding year to udpate.**_

_**Until then,**_

_**Peace,**_

_**-Emile  
06/29/12 P.S. I started playing around with that image book cover thing, let me know what you think in a PM!  
**_


	11. The Next Step

_**Straight off, none of you can hate me anymore then I hate myself right now. I'm a heavy gamer, and I usually pay more attention to my writings then this, but I really haven't, I've been playing games and I apologize, and I hope that my readers are still with me here. Also if you want to read a really great AF fic that actually gets updated, check out the -Road to Recovery- by -Snake queen in Norway-, bloody good read.  
**_

* * *

_**So this section is just a recap, if you had a good memory or just came off the last chapter you can skip right down:**_

* * *

_**So Last chapter, Artemis and Holly had just gotten back to safe ground after being captured by the Opals. Butler felt like there was something going on and had Holly try to confront Artemis, That didn't really go as planed, after a bunch of talking Holly over hears the fact that he believes that she kissed him right before the pods gas knocked them out, and now Holly is getting her confrontation, one way or another... **_

* * *

_**Artemis Fowl: The Parabola Paradox-Chapter 11-The Next Step**_

* * *

Holly made a split second command decision at that moment, feigning ignorance obviously wasn't working so she decided that a new course had to be set, even is she really didn't want to think about what the road might lead to.

Holly gave Butler a grim smile before frowning and pointing a finger at Artemis. "You. Outside. Now."

Without looking to make sure her orders were going to be followed Holly turned and marched back the way she came, heading for the front door. Artemis turned to look at Butler but the bodyguard just shrugged his shoulder and gave Artemis a little wave with his hands. Artemis started for a moment before sliding off his stool and trailing after Holly. Butler followed at a distance, knowing that Holly would not say anything unless they were alone, he made for the security office, while Artemis made for the front door.

When Artemis reached the expansive front lawn, he found Holly with her back facing him. The sun had long ago ceased casting its rays over the grounds and a slight chill was in the air. Artemis came to a stop just slightly behind Holly and cleared his throat. "I assume you wanted to talk about something?"

Holly didn't say anything for a moment. "We need to talk about this thing with us."

Artemis thought about it for a moment "Just to be clear, by 'thing' you mean-"

Holly turned to face him, anger etched into her face "This thing, this attraction, or whatever the hell it is between us, that really shouldn't be between us."

Artemis nodded "Ah, yes, that's what I thought." Artemis, in one of those rare moments where he was a loss of words, drifted into silence.

Holly shook her head "Well? You're the one who always has the plans, come up with something to get rid of this."

Artemis blew out a huff or air "Holly, genius that I am, even I have not figured out how to manufacture emotions. I have theories mind you, but the human brain, let alone a fairies is not so easily tampered with."

Holly closed her eyes "I knew as much, but you make a habit of defying the odds and breaking new ground."

Artemis turned his gaze to the ground "Believe me Holly, if I could, I would have done something about it."

Holly said nothing for a moment "So then, what now? We need to do something, if this keeps up, we could be distracted at a important time."

Artemis said nothing for a moment more while he mentally dug threw his vast knowledge. "Well, we could...admit our feelings."

Holly had turned her back to him and was gazing at the moon again, at his words she turned her head to the side so she could see him "Admit?"

Artemis nodded "Yes, clear the air so to speak. Instead of hiding and bottling up the emotions which is something that I usually never do, we get them out and go about our separate ways, we are worlds apart after all."

Holly chuckled for a moment "Alright, you first then."

Artemis looked startled for a moment. He recovered quickly and was silent for a moment. "Very well." he paused again before he took a few slow steps to stand next to Holly. They both turned their gazes to the moon and watched it for a few minutes before Artemis spoke up. "I like you."

Holly looked at him "And?"

Artemis said nothing, pausing for another moment "Ever since you changed, I have, well, felt my hormones start to react to your presence. Ever since you became a human, I have wondered..."

Holly nodded and said nothing for a bit, then she reached out and punched Artemis gently on the shoulder sending him stumbling away while he rubbed his shoulder "I like you too Mudboy, I know I shouldn't, gods know I shouldn't. If anybody down below found out about all this and what I just said, I would probably get strung up as a traitor." Holly paused for a moment "Oh wait, that's already happening, even with Atlantis, I'm sure people are still denouncing me as a fairy." Holly turned to face Artemis "I really like you Artemis, and if everything goes wrong and you can't cure me, at least, I can have something to look forward to." she paused "Right?"

Artemis felt his eyes widen as he thought through her words. "Yes, of course. Not that I won't stop looking for a cure, just like Foaly won't, and neither will our demon friends."

Holly smiled "Like I would let you." She laughed gently "You know, for a genius who has almost no experience with feelings, you didn't do too bad of a job Arty."

Artemis nodded "Of course, I head read books on the subject, I know the basics, although that's all anybody has ever managed to-"

Holly cut him off with a finger on his lips "Don't ruin the moment Mudboy. Just enjoy it." Artemis nodded, the temptation to cross his eyes to look at her finger getting stronger with every moment. When she finally moved her hand away from his mouth Artemis gulped in relief.

Artemis straightened his shirt "So, whats next then?"

Holly shrugged "For Opal? I leave that to you, that's what your big brain is for." she paused "For us, I guess we'll call it as we see it. Who knows whats going to happen in the future?"

Artemis turned his gaze to the moon again, and he felt goosebumps on his arms rise at the chill "Who knows indeed. Shall we go inside, its only going to get colder from here on out."

Holly looked at him and nodded, and the two of them headed for the manor, ready for a good night sleep.

The next day, Butler found Artemis in his room, the young man was sitting at his desk rubbing a finger on his head and watching the mute centaur on the screen of his laptop rant. Butler came up to stand next to him. "Foaly is off on one of his rage rants I see."

Artemis nodded slowly, his tired movements showing that he was at least some part exhausted. "His third one. Every time I bring up that he missed something while rebuilding security. I'm hopeful that this is the last one and we can finally start searching for how Opal got her explosives in the first place."

Butler looked down at his charge to find him focused on his screen. "But weren't the security leaks how she got the bombs in?"

Artemis shook his head "No, Foaly had other security measures in that should have detected the bombs, the old security system access just allowed her access to that, the older systems, like the pods that Holly and I got trapped in."

Butler nodded "So she got them in through some other means. What about her extreme Mesmer ability? Could she have gotten them through that way, controlled a guard perhaps?"

Artemis shook his head "No, Foaly and I have already touched upon that. The Opal from the past burned out most of her powers while she was here. Our present Opal would also be burned out as well, since she has long since lost access to the animals required. For now we're fairly certain that either she can't recharge those abilities with out certain animals to harvest fluid from."

Butler nodded "But wouldn't it be easy for her to get access to these animals?"

Artemis shook his head again "Normally yes, but Foaly and I have tapped into satellites the world over and have set up a monitoring program. If any animals go missing that Opal has easy access too we'll know about it."

Butler was silent fro a moment "And the wild animals?"

Artemis smiled before calling up a new window on his laptop "The fairy's have monitoring teams set up in their natural habitats, they keep track of numbers, aggressive behaviors and migration patterns, etc, etc. Its quite well documented, and alerts have gone out to all teams, none of them have reported a missing animal."

Butler was silent "So what do we do then?"

Artemis stared at the screen where Foaly appeared to be losing steam. "We wait."

Butler left Artemis to his talks with Foaly and moved on through the mansion, he was passing through the dinning room when he heard voices from the kitchen.

"_So Holly, tell me, whats really going on?"_

"Ah" thought Butler to himself "Madam Fowl has finally cornered Holly"

Butler pushed open the door to the kitchen right as Holly was giving her answer "What do you mean Mrs. Fowl?

Angeline held up one finger while she turned to Butler "If you are going to hamper me in any way Butler you may leave. I have finally gotten Holly alone and I would like some answers, Artemis may have allowed me some, but he hardly ever gives me the straight truth."

Butler raised his hands in mock surrender "I'm here to give Holly some assistance, but not in any way that should hinder your questions."

Holly muttered a thanks under her breath while Mrs. Fowl narrowed her eyes at Butler for a moment. "Fair enough. Stay then." She turned back to Holly who quickly straightened up like she was told to be at attention. "So Holly, Artemis has told me that he is the cause for your change, is this true?"

Holly nodded "Yes Ma'am, as a result of our time steam jumping." Angeline was silent for a moment before she nodded "What about a cure?"

Holly shook her head "That's Artemis's area, I do know that its almost impossible. But your son has pulled off almost impossible before so I'm still at least slightly hopeful that I will be able to rejoin my people some day."

Angeline made a hmm sound before turning her gaze to Butler "True?"

Butler nodded once, his hands folded behind his back "Yes Ma'am"

Angeline turned back to Holly, "What about your feelings for each other?"

Butler kept a grim line over his mouth as he watched Holly's face turn red, he suspected that Holly was about to blunder into a trap , but he couldn't do anything to help her.

Holly was silent for a moment "With all due respect Ma'am, I think my feelings are my own-"

Angeline cut off Holly "I would agree with you if your feelings weren't related to one of my sons, and if you weren't from another species entirely, one that has a greatly extended life span and one that has involved my son in many dangerous pursuits over the past years, completely without my knowledge."

Holly tried to speak up "Artemis chose-"

Angeline cut her off again "I know Artemis chose not to tell me anything, and I'm sure he is not telling me a lot of things right now, but last I checked your name was not Artemis, so hiding behind him as an excuse will not fly with me."

Holly opened her mouth to speak up again, but closed it. She turned to look at Butler who shrugged in helplessness. Holly turned her gaze back to the cross looking Angeline with a new respect in her eyes. After a moment she opened her mouth again. "Butler, please leave us, Mrs Fowl and I need to have a private conversation."

Butler was slightly shocked that Holly would bow so easily "You're sure?"

Holly nodded and Butler turned and left without another word.

Artemis watched the entire exchange on his own view of the security cams, but when Butler left, for some reason he also closed his view. He felt as if he didn't need to know what their conversation would entail. He turned back to Foaly to see him clicking away at his keyboard.

"Something has come up Foaly?" he asked sharply.

Foaly glanced up into the camera quickly "Perhaps, something Butler said has gotten me thinking."

Artemis nodded "What if Opal has captured animals and is just using this extreme Mesmer to send us all clear reports from your teams. Correct?"

Foaly didn't even pause in his searching since he knew Artemis would jump to the same conclusion. After a moment more he took his fingers away from the keyboard and glanced at Artemis "Now we wait."

Artemis has started typing on his own keyboard "Searching the human reports that we attempt to keep on the same animals, I have started a search myself."

There was a beep from Foaly's end at the same time that Artemis clicked on results from his end. He browsed the results for only a moment before he turned his gaze back to his camera "Foaly."

The centaur nodded "I see it." he turned around and pressed a button, Trouble Kelp's voice echoed into the room "What is it Foaly?"

"Sir I think we may have a lead on Opal, and some of our monitor teams for the endangered animals may have been compromised."

Trouble appeared on a monitor behind Foaly "Compromised how?"

Artemis spoke up from his end "Opal. She has her powers back."

"D'Arvit..." Trouble sighed "Alright, what can we do to defend against these powers?"

Foaly turned back to his computer "Not much sir, if my research is right, as is Artemis's description of her powers. We really don't have anything that could stop her if she decides to use them, its quite possible that both of the Opals are now the most powerful Warlocks on Earth, perhaps even stronger then some of the Demons."

Artemis leaned back in his chair "The only question is, if she has all this power, why has she not attacked yet?"

* * *

_**-Haven-Warehouse district-**_

* * *

Since the destruction of Atlantis, Haven was over flowing, both with civilians and prisoners. Two of these prisoners happened to be Mervall and Descant Brill. The Infamous criminal Brill twins, who helped Opal try to lead the Humans to Haven. Life had not been easy for the two of them since their capture. Many of their fellow inmates may have been there because they strayed above ground or made dealings with Humans. But none of them had ever tried to lead the Mud-People to Haven.

So that's why, when the two large pixies grabbed them by the arms and lead them through the crammed warehouse floor, the brothers just assumed that they were in for another round of beatings. What they did not expect was to be lead into a back hallway and transferred to a set of guards who lead them to a truck and silently stuffed them into the back of it. Ignoring all the questions and protests like robots.

After they were safely locked in the dark back of the truck and off to wherever, Mervall turned to his brother "Where do you think they're taking us?"

Descant shrugged "Maybe they're going to release us for good behavior."

Mervall shook his head "Execution would be more likely."

Descant gasped "They wouldn't!"

Mervall just shrugged as the truck came to a stop "With Atlantis destroyed, there is a lot of stuff going on that wouldn't be going on normally."

The twins turned to face the doors as they slid open. The guards were there, each one armed with a neutrino. "Out" one of them grunted. The twins hopped out of the truck and were escorted to a small building that wasn't to far from the warehouse that they had just come from. One of the guards opened a door and gestured "In."

Mervall glanced at his twin before he took a step forward and led the way in. Inside the warehouse they were greeted by a decorated interior not unlike a fancy apartment in Haven. There was a large TV attached to one wall and in front of it a long couch, on that couch sat a small pixie and a human child that looked very...

"Ah, Mervall, Descant, right on time." The child called as she turned to face them.

Mervall gulped "Ms. Kobi." he said taking a shallow bow, while elbowing his twin to do the same. "I take it we have you to thank for our early release?"

Opal nodded "Yes you do, and stop that bowing."

The twins straightened and shot each other a glance. Opal clapped her hands "Oh introductions. Mervall, Descant, reintroduce yourself to our new partner. You know her I believe..." Opal trailed off as the pixie on the couch stood up and walked over, as she walked into better view, Mervall couldn't help a gasp.

"Ms. Kobi...how is...how?" Descant managed instead of his twin.

The Fairy Opal shrugged "Time Travel. Now, are you two ready to rejoin our service?"

Mervall nodded as did Descant. Fairy Opal clapped and grinned, and something about it unsettled Mervall. Opal put a finger on her chin "Great, just one thing..." She looked up at the guards "Restrain them."

Before the twins could react, the guards grabbed the brothers and held their arms behind their backs. "Ms. Kobi! Whats going on?" Descant called out as the Fairy Opal approached slowly. The human Opal just grinned at the two "Just a little something to ensure your loyalty."

Before they could react, Two blobs of magic appeared on the Fairy Opals fingers and she touched them to the twins head. The Magic sank into their skulls and the guards backed away.

Mervall felt his pulse quicken as the Fairy Opal had approached, and when the magic touched him, his skin erupted into a hundred pins and needles. Then the magic sank into his skin and that ball of pain passed through his skull and settled into his brain. Buzzing with agony the entire time. Then it spread, quickly, it traveled his body igniting every nerve on fire and coating him in a sheen of sweat. He wanted to scream out, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't. He was dimly aware of his brothers own agony.

The pain seemed to go on forever, and when it finally stopped. Something felt wrong...

The Fairy Opal stepped back from the brothers as they fell to their knees and then arched their backs, their arms shaking from the pain. After a moment the shaking stopped and Opal Fairy smiled "Stand."

Mervall was aware of his body standing up, but he had nothing to do with it. He tried to move his arms but that was impossible, he couldn't even talk. He had lost control of his own body.

Mervall and Descant rose slowly, staring at the floor, when they finally reached their feet they swayed for a moment before raising their heads to face the Opal in front of them. The Child Opal walked around behind them. "Whom do you serve?" she asked.

Mervall and Descant spoke at the same time, monotone and with out pausing. "You Empress. Only you." the Child Opal smiled, and all it held was malice. She turned to her counterpart "Well it appears that we have two more loyal servants. Shall we put the next step into action?"

Opal Fairy picked up a small phone "Oh, allow me." she pressed a button and held the device to her head after a moment she spoke "Its time."

With that simple sentence groups that were living out in the tunnels that had easy access to Haven and usually had heavily patrolled exits all stood up and set about their orders, their movements were very mechanical and stiff, almost like their limbs weren't there own. They grabbed the crates like they had been told and set out for Haven.

* * *

_**Okay readers, its almost time for the end, and I'll tell you right now. I'm excited, because if I wrap everything up correctly it shall be awesome. At least, one can hope it will be awesome. I also might be changing the name of the story since it doesn't really match with the story anymore. Remember, if you see something off with how i did this, please leave a review, I like to know if people think the story is still good.  
**_

_** So, just a few ****notes, I'm almost done with one of my other major stories, so once I get the next chapter pounded out for another story, I'll be focusing on that until I finish it, then I'll focus on finishing this and that will leave my last major story as the focus...for now...**_

_**Also quick question, how many of you would be willing to read actual fiction from me? Just curious...**_

_**Bonus points to the person who can spot the hidden song title!  
**_

_**Until next time readers!**_

_**Peace,**_

_**-Emile**_


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